Dentist files $25M lawsuit against ERC

A dentist attached to the Fort Wellington Hospital has sued the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), which had filed legal proceedings against him for allegedly failing to perform a tooth extraction on a child based on her ethnicity.

The writ, which was filed in the Berbice High Court on Friday by Attorney-at-Law Horatio Edmonson, seeks an order of the High Court declaring the charge instituted by the ERC against the dentist is irrational, unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and ill-conceived.
The ERC had filed charges in the Magistrate’s Court alleging that Dr Surendrapaul Rampersaud refused to perform a tooth extraction on a child, on the ground of her race.
Even with this legal proceeding still ongoing, the dentist has since slapped the ERC with a $25 million lawsuit.
The Ethnic Relations Commission, Magistrate Peter Hugh, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions have all been named as respondents.
On January 13, 2021, Dr Rampersaud appeared at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court to answer a charge brought by the ERC which alleges that on September 18, 2020, while being employed as a Dental Surgeon attached to the Dental Department at the Fort Wellington Hospital, he refused to perform a tooth extraction on a child, on the ground of her race which results or can result in racial or ethnic violence or hatred among the people.
That matter is still before Magistrate Peter Hugh and was last called on Friday.
In the writ filed at the court, Dr Rampersaud is seeking to have the High Court declare that the charge instituted by the ERC is exceptional and is subject to judicial review.
He is also seeking an order quashing the charge and permanently halting the prosecution by the ERC.
The order also seeks to have the High Court direct the ERC to pay an amount in excess of $25 million to Dr Rampersaud for aggravated damages and diminished reputation.
The application to the High Court is being made on the grounds that Dr Rampersaud is a Dental Surgeon duly admitted to practice dentistry by the Dental Council of Guyana since the year 2010; he has worked as a Dental Surgeon at the Mahaicony and at Fort Wellington Hospitals over the past 11 years and he has an impeccable record as a dentist.
In 2019, the then REO of Region Five, Ovid Morrison, accused Dr Rampersaud of using certain dental instruments while at work to attend to Indo Guyanese, and not using the said instruments when attending to Afro Guyanese.
the writ noted that on August 7, 2019, Morrison sent Dr Rampersaud on administrative leave, and referred the matter to the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry. Morrison also informed Dr Rampersaud that he was on administrative leave without pay effective from October 1, 2019, pending the outcome of an investigation.
In October 2020, Morrison invited Dr Rampersaud to attend a disciplinary hearing and he attended the hearing with legal representation but was unlawfully told by the REO that his legal representative was prohibited from participating in the hearing which is contrary to Section 139 D (1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03.
The writ also says that after being charged and placed before the Magistrate’s Court, he made eleven appearances. During that period the ERC reported to Magistrate Peter Hugh that it no longer had a commission and a prosecutor.
A motion was then moved for the dismissal of the charge for want of prosecution but the Magistrate disallowed the motion.
In fact, the writ noted that there were four such motions made to the court and all were disallowed by the Magistrate.
Rampersaud is also contending that the ERC made a post on social media which has caused him to suffer diminished reputation in his community.
Meanwhile, when the matter was called on Friday at the Fort Wellington Magistrate’s Court, it was further deferred until November 11.
The hearing of the lawsuit is set for November 5. (G4)