Lead Stories

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Retired Court of Appeal judge Boyd Carey has been barred from continuing to sit on the commission of enquiry into the collapse of the financial sector in the 1990s.

The Judicial Review Court yesterday ordered his removal because it found that he was a FINSAC debtor. Carey was chairman of the commission.

Commenting further, the court said having found that Carey was a delinquent borrower, he could not be a judge in his own cause.

Although the claimants had asked for the removal of all the members, the court ruled that the enquiry could continue with the other two commissioners, Charles Ross and Worrick Bogle, and that the governor general could appoint a third commissioner.

The attorney general was a defendant to the motion and the court has ordered the Government to pay the claimants' legal costs.

The claimants had contended that when Carey refused to step down, that could have been the decision of the entire commission.

Lawyer pushed out

Queen's Counsel (QC) R.N.A. Henriques has also been barred from sitting as counsel for the commission. He was removed on the grounds that he was associated with a company which had a debt with FINSAC and held positions in two failed financial institutions.

Supreme Court judges Lennox Campbell, Paulette Williams and Leighton Pusey said the men's removal was based on an appearance of bias and was not an attack on their integrity.

"This is more than a victory for the claimants, it is a victory for the administration of justice, said Michael Hylton, QC, who represented former Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies, one of the claimants.

Attorneys-at-law Patrick Foster, QC, Dave Garcia and Nicole Foster Pusey also appeared for the claimants and said their clients were happy with the ruling. The other claimants were retired Financial Secretary Shirley Tyndall, former FINSAC Chairman Patrick Hylton and the Jamaican Redevelopment Foundation.

ASKED TO RECUSE HIMSELF

The enquiry was set up to probe the collapse of the financial sector in the 1990s and the resulting treatment of people whose debts were taken over by the entity.

During the hearing of the enquiry this year, the claimants asked Carey to recuse himself because he had a debt with FINSAC and was a shareholder in his wife's company Bev Carey and Associates which also had a $1.7-million debt with FINSAC.

Carey denied having a debt with FINSAC and continued the hearing.

Attorneys-at-law Dr Lloyd Barnett and Dr Adolph Edwards, who represented Carey, argued that the claimants did not prove that Carey or his wife's company had a debt with FINSAC or the Jamaican Redevelopment Foundation. They said Carey had an overdraft with Century National Bank, which was repaid many years ago.

Attorney-at-law Paul Beswick, who represented Ross and Bogle, said the claimants had no good reason for bringing the matter to court.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com