CCJ orders Appeal Court to hear Blairmont Rice Investment case

After 5 years

Five years after a notice of appeal was filed in the Appeal Court of Guyana, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has refused an application by the Blairmont Rice Investment Inc for special leave to appeal to the CCJ in its appeal against Kayman Sankar Company Ltd, Kayman Sankar Investment Ltd, and Beni Sankar.
The Court of Appeal of Guyana was on Thursday ordered to notify the CCJ of the hearing date no later than December 21, 2017. The CCJ has determined that with the time which has elapsed, the substantive appeal “needs to be heard as expeditiously as possible.”
According to the court’s determination, the dispute between the parties originated when “Blairmont entered into three agreements where the respondents sold them land, equipment and buildings in December 2006”. CCJ observed that Blairmont made an initial payment towards the purchase, and entered into possession. The court further explained it was agreed that the remaining amount would be paid in portions at half-yearly intervals.
“There was a term in the agreements that the respondents had the right to repossess the properties if Blairmont failed to make the required payments. When it failed to make those payments, the respondents purported to terminate the agreements, and filed a claim in the High Court of Guyana on 4 April 2011 in order to obtain a declaration that they had terminated the agreements and to recover possession of the properties,” a section of a release by CCJ noted on Thursday.
The CCJ also observed that in a motion filed in the Court of Appeal of Guyana on February 9, 2017, Blairmont, the applicant, alleged that it sought an order for the matter to be returned to the High Court of Guyana for retrial, because in its view, “the trial judge had failed to provide written reasons for his decisions before retiring from office”.
According to the Caribbean Court, in its application, the company alleged that the Court of Appeal of Guyana “had refused its request, and instead ordered that the Record of Appeal be settled and that the appeal should proceed.
In refusing the application for special leave, the CCJ ordered that the hearing to determine Blairmont’s substantive appeal was deemed fit for urgent hearing by Guyana’s Court of Appeal.”
The CCJ further said it “rejected Blairmont’s application for special leave because they did not seek an order for retrial in the motion filed on 9 February 2017, but actually sought to progress Blairmont’s substantive appeal by having the Court of Appeal hear the appeal in the light of the availability of the pleadings, exhibits, affidavits, the trial judge’s notes of evidence, and his detailed order, despite the absence of any written reasons for his decision.”
The applicant’s Notice of Appeal was filed on April 17, 2012 and the matter is yet to be concluded. The CCJ therefore awarded basic costs to the respondent. Since the appeal case was filed, Kayman Sankar passed away some three ago; Beni Sankar is his son.