Udecott boss' lawsuit against Las Alturas commissioners one step further to trial

UDECOTT’s chairman Noel Garcia’s lawsuit against the former commissioners who chaired the Las Alturas Commission of Enquiry has moved one step closer to trial.

At a pre-trial review before Justice Kevin Ramcharan in the Port of Spain High Court, attorneys for both sides indicated that affidavit evidence were filed by the two remaining commissioners Dr Myron Wing-Sang Chin and Anthony Farrell, although late.

Leave was granted the two to extend the time for filing their affidavits which they missed on March 22, but eventually did so on April 30.

Garcia’s affidavits are to be filed by July 12.

Directions were given by Ramcharan for the filing of evidential objections and he will give his ruling on October 21, after which he will give directions on the filing of submissions and possibly fix a trial date.

Garcia had filed a judicial review claim against the former chairman of the inquiry, retired judge Mustapha Ibrahim, and Wing-Sang Chin and Farrell, challenging the adverse findings made against him in the commission’s final report. He was granted permission to advance his lawsuit against the three.

Ibrahim died in London on June 9, 2017, but his lawsuit against the other two proceeded.

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.

Wing-Sang Chin and Farrell are represented by Alvin Pariagsingh. Colin Kangaloo appears for Garcia and Rishi Dass appears for the Attorney General.