Jagdeo challenging $20M Default judgment – Gets new defence attorney

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo will challenge High Court Judge Ms. Sandra Curtzious’ $20M
judgement handed down against him in the 2020 libel suit file by Ms. Annette Ferguson who was
then a minister in the coalition A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change
(APNU+AFC) government.
Ferguson is now an APNU+AFC opposition legislator in the 12 th Parliament.
As a first step in his challenge to the multimillion award Ferguson won, Jagdeo has a new
defence attorney who can give full attention to his case.
Mr. Anil Nandlall, who was Jagdeo’s Attorney before the party won the 2020 General and
Regional polls is now the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, then and
now is continuously tied up in numerous litigations. The most recent involves matters of the
State.
Nandlall was also a key figure for the then opposition Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C)
coalition in the pre and post elections saga and blamed the numerous court cases filed locally and
with the country’s apex court in Trinidad and Tobago by the APNU+AFC government in a bid to
overturn the results of the bitterly-contested 2020 elections.
In addition to the slew of court cases, the global pandemic disrupted everything, Nandlall argued.
“COVID stepped in and lawyers’ offices were closed during that period of time. In fact, my
office was closed for a longer period of time than most lawyers, because someone began to
spread a rumor that o had COVID and the court was not hearing me or permitting my staff to
transact business in the registry for a number of weeks,” he revealed.

Consequently, Jagdeo’s team failed to file his defence motion within the scheduled timeframe
under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). Justice Curtzious then ordered the $20M judgement in
Ferguson’s favour, with an additional $75,000 in legal costs.
Nandlall disagrees with the High Court decision arguing that Jagdeo, who was then the
Opposition Leader was denied opportunity to argue his case when he said is a very persuasive
one.
He said that affidavits were filed on behalf of Jagdeo and there was a date set aside for
arguments before the High Court Judge and they were heard.
However, “[t]he Judge dismissed the application for the injunction on the ground that Mr. Jagdeo
had put forward a good case and that an injunction should not be granted in those circumstances
and for the legal reasons advanced,” Nandlall explained said.
He said his team was unaware they had to mount a defence and a year later, to their utter
astonishment a judgment was handed down against them.
“The normal practice is that application is served on the other side so that the other side can get
an opportunity to come forward and offer an explanation why the defense was not filed rather
than taking that ultimate step and grating judgement against a party without his/her knowledge
and without his lawyers’ knowledge and in their absence, that is not a normal thing,” Nandlall
counselled.
In addition, Nandlall was mystified how Judge Curtzious arrived at the quantum of award for
Ferguson without examining the evidence since there was no trial.
“So how did this judge arrive at the sum of $20M? In the ordinary course of things evidence is
required to be accessed by a hearing. Even when a defendant who does not have a defense on file
is allowed to be present and is entitled to interrogate that witness who is going into that witness
box to give that evidence against him. From the records of the court that I have examined that
process didn’t take place,” he argued.

Consequently, Nandlall wants the High Court ruling set aside because of strong mitigating
circumstances favouring Mr. Jagdeo
“It’s not a case of negligence at all, there are very, very extenuating circumstances which one can
put forward to a court to excuse the non-filing of the defense and that is what is being pursued
now,” he said justifying the lapse.
Explained Nandlall, “It’s not the first time that default judgement is being granted and once a
good case is put forward why a defense was not filed and appropriate orders are made to rectify
that default, a court will grant that indulgence to the other side and we are hoping that happens
here so that we can get an opportunity to file the defense because Mr. Jagdeo has a good defense
and we are hoping that we get to put it to the court and then the court can adjudicate upon it and
we take it from there.”
“We will not leave a default judgment on the record, we will attempt to have it set aside and a
defense to be put on file on behalf of Mr. Jagdeo,” Nandlall vowed.
Nevertheless, Mr. Jagdeo has secured the services of a new defence lawyer, Mr. Davendra
Kissoon, to argue his case.