High Court dismisses Magistrate’s lawsuit against DPP

A defamation lawsuit by senior magistrate, Alex Moore against the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali – Hack for damages in excess of $50M has been dismissed by the High Court.

In his ruling on an application filed by the DPP for dismissal, Justice Navindra Singh upheld the argument that Moore’s pleadings disclose no reasonable basis for instituting the claim, or alternatively, that the claim is an abuse of the process of the Court.

The DPP, through her lawyers, Robin Stoby, S.C. and Mses. Jamela Ali and Kim Kyte-Thomas, also argued that the lawsuit was frivolous and/ or vexatious since she is protected in the execution of her office under the provisions of the laws of Guyana.

Magistrate Moore, through his lawyers, Arudranauth Gossai and Mayo Robertson, filed a defamation claim as a result of a letter Ali-Hack had sent to the acting Chancellor of the Judiciary and the acting Chief Justice under the caption: “Re: Conduct of Magistrate Alex Moore in the charge of the Police vs Marcus Bisram for the offence of murder, Contrary to Common Law”.

In his statement of claim dated July 22, 2020, the magistrate said that the letter sent to the Chancellor and Chief Justice suggested that he was not acting impartial in the matter, and was, therefore, unfit to sit as a magistrate in the murder charge brought by the State against Marcus Bisram, which was being inquired into at the Whim Magistrate’s Courts.

Justice Singh, in the conclusion of his ruling, said the claim shows that the letter is irrefutably ‘absolutely privileged’.

“In the circumstances, based on all of the foregoing, the Application filed by the [DPP] on August 18th 2020 is granted,” he ruled.

Moore now has to pay the DPP $200,000 on or before December 24, 2020.