PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will hold itinerant sittings in Guyana later this week for the second time in its 18-year history.
As an itinerant court, the CCJ said it could sit in any of the 12 countries that are signatories to the agreement establishing the CCJ as the region’s final court to replace the London-based Privy Council.
The CCJ will sit in Guyana for two days from Wednesday, and according to a statement issued here, “the full Bench of the CCJ will sit at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Georgetown for three hearings and a judgment delivery.”
It said that the hearings would be open to members of the public and the media and live-streamed via the Court’s YouTube page.
In the first hearing, the judges will hear an application from a person identified only as “AB” who is seeking leave to appeal to the CCJ to review the decision of the Court of Appeal of Guyana, which affirmed the imposition of two concurrent life sentences after his conviction for two counts of sexual activity with a child contrary to the Sexual Offences Act of Guyana.
The applicant contends that the sentence is manifestly excessive and that the sentencing process of the trial judge was flawed. He also argued that the Court of Appeal’s failure to review and correct these errors amounts to a severe miscarriage of justice and justifies the granting of special leave by the CCJ.
The second matter is a civil appeal of the Barbados Court of Appeal decision on July 22, last year.
In the matter Apsara Restaurants (Barbados) Limited versus Guardian General Insurance Limited, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decision and found that the respondent was entitled to refuse to honor a policy of insurance subsisting between the parties.
The appellant now seeks an order from the CCJ reversing and setting aside the decision and rulings handed down by the Court of Appeal and has enumerated 39 grounds supporting their appeal.
In another civil matter, Sasedai Kumarie Persaud v Sherene Mongroo and others, the Guyana Court of Appeal on November 30 last year, reversed the trial court’s decision and held that the last will of the deceased Yusuf Mongroo was invalid.
The appellant now seeks an order from the CCJ reversing and or setting aside the decision and rulings handed down by the Court of Appeal.
In an appeal from Barbados, the appellant, James Fields, was granted special leave to appeal by the CCJ on February 14 this year. The order appealed against is an order of the Court of Appeal of Barbados confirming the conviction and sentence of the appellant.
The appellant was granted special leave to appeal on one ground: that the learned Justices of Appeal erred in law when they found that the learned trial judge correctly directed the jury on how to treat the evidence of a witness that the jury believed to be deliberately lying under oath. He is seeking an order quashing his conviction and sentence.
The CCJ said that while in Guyana, its judges and staff will also participate in several stakeholder engagement and sensitization sessions, including a referral training session with the members of the Judiciary of Guyana on the referral obligation in the Court’s Original Jurisdiction as well as a sensitization session with the Bar Association of Guyana on “The Responsibilities of Attorneys to the Legal Profession.”
They will also participate in a business breakfast seminar with the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry under the theme “The Benefit of the CARICOM Single Market Regime for Private Persons.”
There will also be a lecture with law students from the University of Guyana (UoG) on “The Impact of CCJ on the Teaching of Law at the UoG.”
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