PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The state has filed an appeal in a case in which it has been ordered to pay an estimated TT$20 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16) to nine men acquitted of murdering a businesswoman in 2016.
A statement from the Office of the Attorney General on Monday evening noted that the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Reginald Armour SC, based on the advice of retained lead counsel Rolston Nelson SC, “an application has …been filed in the High Court … to set aside both the default judgment and the award of damages made against the State in favor of these Claimants”.
It added that Armour is now awaiting fixing the date for the application hearing “and remains consistent in his commitment to ensuring that the public continues to be updated on the progress of this matter.”
In February, retired Appeal Court judge Stanley John was appointed the lead investigator in the matter as the state sought to determine how it could not file a defense.
Armour had said then that an important file that would have alerted the Office of the Attorney General to the matter “had disappeared” even though the relevant department had received it.
But one week into his assignment, John announced he had been informed “that the file in question” had been found and that he “immediately instructed that the Solicitor General (Ag) secure that file for collection by the Investigative Team, the re-appearance of this file forms part of this continuing investigation.
“Our foremost priority within our terms of reference is to trace and assist how this matter went from claim to default judgment to the award of TT$20 million in damages against the state,” he said, adding, “while we shall undertake this investigation with the utmost care and exhaustiveness, given the gravity of it, we shall aim to present our first exhaustive report to the Honourable Attorney General no later than March 31, 2023”.
John said he is aware that citizens are “justifiably appalled and outraged” at the outcome of the civil action brought by the nine men, who were freed of charges of kidnapping and murder of the 52-year-old businesswoman, Vindra Naipaul-Coolman.
In January, Master Martha Alexander awarded to the nine men TT$19,168,917.56 for malicious prosecution and exemplary damages; costs amounting to $200,917.56; and the cost of an expert witness of $68,000, making it perhaps the most significant award in Trinidad and Tobago’s judicial history.
Interest will be added to the damages for each man, at a rate of 2.5 percent, from May 29, 2020, to January 30.
Naipaul-Coolman, the former chief executive of the supermarket chain Naipaul’s Xtra Foods, was kidnapped from the driveway of her residence in Lange Park, Chaguanas, in west-central Trinidad, on the night of December 19, 2016. Her body was never found. Her kidnappers had demanded a three million dollar ransom for her release.
The nine men – Shervon Peters, Devon Peters, Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, Keida Garcia, Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimmingham, and Antonio Charles – were among ten persons who had gone on trial in 2016 for Naipaul-Coolman’s murder.
The nine men had filed a malicious prosecution claim in May 2020, which the state did not defend, despite having entered an appearance.
and then  to nine men){kind=link}