High Court Judge, Justice Diana Insanally today handed down judgment in favour of former Guyana High Commissioner to Canada, Harry Narine Nawbatt, who had sued the Attorney General in April 2016 for wrongful termination.
A statement from Nawbatt’s Attorney, Anil Nandlall revealed that the Judge granted the judgment in the sum of:
(i) twenty-four million, two hundred and ninety-five thousand, one hundred and four dollars ($24,295,104);
(ii) five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for breach of contract;
(iii) interest on the said sums at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of filing to the date of judgment and thereafter at the rate of 4% per annum until fully paid;
(iv) costs in the sum of $50,000
The former Diplomat claimed that his contract of employment was not lawfully terminated and sued for his salaries, emoluments and other benefits owing under the said contract.
Nandall noted that he and his Associates filed similar cases in 2015/2016 for former Advisor to the Minister of Local Government, Clinton Collymore, Zulfikar Mustapha, former Liaison Officer to the Office of the President for Region No. 6 and Ms. Anna Correia, who was employed by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.
It was noted that in all these cases, the Plaintiffs sued for damages for wrongful dismissal/unlawful termination of their contracts of employment.
“Again, after a trial of each of these cases, judgments were awarded to each of them in various sums as compensation along with interest and costs. The Attorney General was the Defendant in all of these cases. No appeal was filed against any of these decisions.”
Nandlall claimed that the Attorney General has consistently refused to honour these judgments “although we have made repeated written requests for him to do so.”
“However, we note in some cases, judgments are quickly paid, taxes are written off and in one case, a mere letter threatening litigation attracted the payment of approximately US$ 5.7 million.”
“Needless to say, the relevant proceedings will be commenced shortly to commit the Minister of Finance to prison for non-payment of these judgments.
