PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Friday refused to grant permission to Barbadian businessman Graham Bethell, who was seeking to appeal a decision of the Court of Appeal in Barbados.
Bethell had sought permission from the CCJ, the island’s highest and final Court, to appeal a trial judge’s decision to enter summary judgment against him, which had also dismissed his counterclaim filed against Royal Bank of Canada (Barbados) Limited.
In May 2012, the bank had claimed the sum of BDS$1,040,583.67 (One BDS$-US$0.50 cents) against Bethell, saying it was owed to it under a guarantee and postponement of claim signed by Bethell and other company directors of ISIS Development Limited in March 2005.
Bethell had allegedly agreed to guarantee the sum of one million Barbados dollars, together with interest. In August 2020, a High Court judge entered summary judgment against him because he had no real prospect of success in defending the claim nor maintaining his counterclaim. Bethell was ordered to pay one million dollars plus interest and costs.
But he filed an application in the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the summary judgment order.
In July 2021, the Court of Appeal dismissed this application because he did not need leave to appeal, as he had been granted unconditional leave to defend by the High Court.
In August 2021, Bethell filed an application for leave to appeal out of time against the trial judge’s decision to dismiss his counterclaim.
The Court of Appeal clarified that this application was an application for leave from the Court of Appeal to extend the time required to file a notice of appeal against the decision dismissing the counterclaim.
The Court, focusing on the time constraints in which a litigant can file appeals set out in the Supreme Court (Civil Procedure Rules) 2008 and its discretion to depart from those rules, dismissed this application as not being in the interests of justice.
It also dismissed the appeal against the order of summary judgment for having been filed out of time, with no particular reason to permit the request. Bethell then sought special leave to appeal these decisions to the CCJ.
In its ruling on Friday, the CCJ agreed with the Court of Appeal’s decision and found that Bethell had once again failed to present the necessary criteria, as required by the Supreme Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2008, which could enable the Court to depart from the rules on time for filing appeals.
It ruled that instead of addressing the requirements outlined in several decisions examined by the Court of Appeal, Bethell’s application argued that the Court of Appeal erred in concluding that special reasons had not been shown.
Because of failing to address the required factors needed to satisfy the Supreme Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2008, Bethell’s application could not identify what factors the Court of Appeal failed to consider in making its decision.
On these bases, the application for special leave was dismissed, the CCJ added.
and then  Friday refused to grant permission to Barbadian businessman Graham){kind=link}