Attorney General’s niece asks for adjournment; Justice Ward agrees to Douglas’ request for earlier trial

146/2018

By: Erasmus Williams

Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 26th 2018 – Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has described as “ridiculous” the request by the Attorney General Hon. Vincent Byron for a postponement in the civil suit brought against him when the matter came before Justice Trevor Warde on Monday at the Sir Lee Llewellyn Moore Judicial and Legal Services Complex.

Taliba Byron, a niece of Attorney General Vincent Byron and who practices out of the Attorney General’s private law office, Byron & Byron on Fort Street, represented her uncle, the Attorney General during the hearing.

Ms. Byron informed Justice Warde that the Government’s Senior Counsel, Douglas Mendes was not only unavailable, but also requested more time to respond to Dr. Douglas’ affidavit to find expert witness on the laws of the Commonwealth of Dominica.

“They are now asking the judge not to give two weeks as is allowed by the court administration, but three weeks in order to respond to our affidavit which we submitted. This is ridiculous. They brought the case. They said they were ready for the February 26 trial,” Dr. Douglas told reporters surrounded by several supporters.

“They also said when they filed the Claim against me that the Court was competent enough to make a determination on the laws of Dominica as to their claim. Now we are saying if you said you had confidence in the competence of the Court, why do you now want an expert witness to interpret Dominica laws? We have said if you want expert witnesses to interpret Dominica laws, we said we too must have time in order to find expert witnesses,” said the former Prime Minister.

Byron had indicated a date in May was reasonable, but Dr. Douglas’ lawyer, Sylvester Anthony had earlier told Justice Warde that the case was extremely important to Dr. Douglas and his 6,000 constituents and wished to have the matter heard earlier.

Justice Warde set a trial date for April 20, 2018.

Photos of Dr. Douglas’ appearance at court on Monday.