Vendors sue Namdevco after getting expelled

A vendor and his mother have received the court’s permission to challenge a decision by Namdevco to expel them from the farmers’ wholesale market in Macoya because they reached ten minutes late to pay the licence fee for their stall for December

Kel Ali and his mother Lou Ann Gonzales said they have been selling at the farmers’ market for the past 12 years. On November 29, 2019, when they went to pay the $440 fee for December, they were refused because Ali arrived ten minutes late.

They were also unable to pay for January and were told they were expelled. They say Namdevco has since refused to accept payments from them.

Justice Ricky Rahim granted the two, who trade under the name K and L Marketing, leave to challenge Namdevco’s decision to expel them and refuse their payments.

The matter will come up for hearing on April 28. Representing the vendor are attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Kiel Taklalsingh and Lana Lakhan.

According to their lawsuit, they are unable to trade as they have done for the past 12 years and are being deprived of the opportunity to earn a living. Gonzales was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, and Ali said he has taken over the day-to-day operations of their vending business.

He says they were not given an opportunity to be heard when they were expelled.

Ali said they were told that most vendors pay the fee in two weeks while he and his mother habitually waited until the last day to make their payment for their spot. He said he was also told, in response to correspondence sent by his lawyer, that they had ample notice of the deadline to pay and of the consequences if they failed to pay on time.

He said on the day he went to make the December payment, he was busy with customers and asked an employee to make the payment. The employee got to the market manager’s office ten minutes after the 10 am deadline. He also said he has been in conflict with the manager because of a previous judicial review claim he filed over a ban to sell at the market.

Ali said because he has been unable to pay, he and his mother have lost their spot at the market.

They will be asking the court to quash what they say was the unlawful and unreasonable decision by Namdevco.