Ex-Las Alturas commissioners win appeal

THE two remaining former commissioners of the Las Alturas Commission of Enquiry have successfully challenged a judge’s order that substituted them as the estate of deceased commission chairman, retired judge Mustapha Ibrahim, in a lawsuit filed by Udecott chairman Noel Garcia.

Garcia had filed a judicial review claim against Ibrahim, and civil engineers Dr Myron Wing-Sang Chin and Anthony Farrell, challenging the adverse findings against him in the commission’s final report. He was granted permission to advance his lawsuits against the commissioners.

Ibrahim died in London on June 9, 2017, and Garcia was granted permission to have the two surviving ex-commissioners substituted in his claim.

The three were appointed in January 2015 by former president Anthony Carmona to sit on the commission which investigated the failed Las Alturas towers at Lady Young Road, Morvant.

In a unanimous decision today, Appeal Court judges Allan Mendonca and Judith Jones upheld Wing-Sang Chin and Farrell’s appeal and set aside the October 31, 2017 order making them representatives of Ibrahim’s estate in Garcia’s claim.

Wing-Sang Chin and Farrell were represented by Gerald Ramdeen. Colin Kangaloo appeared for Garcia and Fyard Hosein,SC, and Rishi Dass appeared for the Attorney General.