CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC -Opposition Leader, Allen Chastanet, has welcomed the ruling by the London-based Privy Council that on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by St. Lucia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Ernest Hilaire on whether a particular section of the Civil Code of St. Lucia allows the importation of United Kingdom statute law into local law about contracts, quasi-contracts, and torts.
“I am very relieved, and I am very happy for a lot of St. Lucians who could not stand up to this government,” said Chastanet, who is in Canada meeting with the executive members of the Canadian-Toronto chapter of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP).
Speaking on a radio program from the North American country, Chastanet said the ruling also underscores the need for citizens to “fully understand the constitution and our laws…and to use the judicial system to protect ourselves”.
He said he hopes the ruling is another example where the island appreciates the separation between the judiciary and the politician.
“Our judiciary must remain independent. It is the final leg that we have to protect our civil rights and us from governments like this government that wants to oppress and bully,” Chastanet said.
Hilaire had filed a claim against Chastanet, a former prime minister, for defamation in the St. Lucia High Court on March 20, 2017.
A defense was filed by Chastanet on May 2, 2017, in which he placed substantial reliance on the Defamation Act 2013 of the United Kingdom, which he contended was imported into St. Lucia law by Article 917A of the Civil Code Cap 4:01 of the Civil Code.
But by application filed on August 16, 2018, the defendant applied to strike out the claimant’s claim because it disclosed no reasonable ground for bringing the lawsuit.
The claimant applied on September 3, 2018, to strike out the defendant’s defense because it disclosed no reasonable reason to the claim as the defense was predicated on the Act, which did not apply to St. Lucia.
The basis for the objection was that Article 917A only imported the common law of England and not English statute law.
The High Court determined that Article 917A of the Civil Code did not import the Act into S.t Lucian law. In an appeal, the higher court held that Article 917A of the Civil Code allows for the importation of common law and statute law about contracts, quasi-contracts, and torts.
When the matter came before the Privy Council, the island’s highest court, it concluded that article 917A is valid and that, in principle, it imports both English statute law and English common law into St Lucia.
The Privy Council said it would consider the appellant’s case that inconsistencies between specific aspects of English defamation law and the law of St. Lucia preclude such importation.
But in its 23-page ruling, the Privy Council said the Board it would “humbly advise…that the appeal should be dismissed”.
In a statement, Hilaire described the Privy Council ruling as “unfortunate,” adding, “It undermines the legal jurisprudence of St. Lucia and indeed exposes lawyers in St. Lucia to professional negligence lawsuits for advising their clients on what they thought was the proper law of the land.”
He acknowledged that while the ruling cannot be appealed any further, “and as such, all that is left to be done is await the advice of the Attorney General on the corrective measures that need to be taken to ensure that the law of St. Lucia is certain and not left with such ambiguity.”
But Chastanet told radio listeners that Hilaire’s interpretation of the law was wrong “and that we go to court because both sides occasionally disagree on the performance of the law.
“But even his suggestion that he is going to go to the Attorney General …to have the Attorney General try to remedy the situation, the situation could have been fixed, if you want to call it that many years ago.
: But we will still need some laws to deal with defamation in this country. This was a landmark case on many fronts,” he said, including how St. Lucia applies British rule.
“Very importantly, nobody is above the law,” Chastanet added.
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