Man dies before judgment

UPDATE:

FOR almost four years pensioner Deonarine Sookdeo fought for justice in the courts after his ancestral home in St Augustine was demolished by a bailiff and his team on December 6, 2014. Sookdeo died before a judgment could be delivered in the High Court.

The 74-year-old Sookdeo sued the police for trespass and negligence, contending that in accompanying the bailiff, they were negligent in their duties, as they “legitimised” an unlawful demolition. The case was wrapped up before Justice David Harris last December. Since then on four occasions the judge adjourned his decision.

Sookdeo died of a heart attack on Tuesday. Only last week his lawyer Larry Lalla wrote to the judge reminding him of the outstanding judgment and asking for a date for the delivery of a ruling. Lalla declined to comment on the case yesterday, since it was still before the court, but confirmed Sookdeo’s death.

Sookdeo’s funeral took place yesterday. According to the evidence in Sookdeo’s case, a bailiff and a group of police went to his home at Deena Trace and told him they were there to evict him and his family. He produced his deed for the property, which had been in his family since 1921, but the men, who did not produce any court order, bulldozed the two-storey house and put up a fence around the one-acre property, which was valued at over $3 million.

When Sookdeo’s attorneys did a search in the land registry they found three false deeds had been attached to documents relating to the ownership of the property. Sookdeo, in a separate lawsuit, was able to have the false deeds removed from the registry.
He was seeking compensation from the State for trespass and negligence, including aggravated damages of almost $900,000.

ORIGINAL STORY:

FOR almost four years pensioner Deonarine Sookdeo fought for justice in the courts after his ancestral home in St Augustine was demolished by a bailiff and his team on December 6, 2014.

On Tuesday, Sookdeo died of a heart attack before a judgment could be delivered in the high court.

The 74-year-old man sued the police for trespass and negligence, contending that the police, who accompanied the bailiff, were negligent in their duties as they “legitimised” an unlawful demolition.

The case was wrapped up before Justice David Harris last December, and the judge, on four occasions since then, adjourned his decision.