PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has remitted to the High Court in Guyana a dispute involving three people in a partnership, including two brothers.
The dispute centres on a judgment sum of US$733,451 plus interest, which the applicant, Harry Panday, claims belongs to the partnership. The other parties in the case are Malcolm Panday, the first respondent, and Deosaran David.
The High Court first struck out the applicant’s Statement of Claim, and both the Full Court and the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court ruling on the basis that it disclosed no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim due to insufficient particulars.
But in providing the reasons for allowing special leave to appeal, the CCJ held that cases should, wherever possible, be determined on their substantive merits rather than being dismissed for curable procedural deficiencies.
Under this approach, where a court identifies a potentially deficient statement of claim, it must first determine whether the pleading discloses a reasonable ground or cause of action for bringing a claim, and whether any deficiency in particulars is curable.
If the claim discloses a cause of action but lacks sufficient particulars, the court must then conduct a balancing exercise considering: the effective use of resources, proportionality, fairness to all parties, and the overriding objective of dealing with cases justly.
The CCJ, which is Guyana’s highest and final court, found that the lower courts’ failure to consider whether the applicant should be allowed to amend his Statement of Claim before striking it out amounted to a misapplication of judicial discretion and an error of law.
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