Appeal Court gives covid19 relief after attorneys miss deadlines

AN appellate court judge had to remind attorneys of the age-old tenet of “professional courtesy” during a procedural appeal hearing in which the court was being asked to extend time for the filing of submissions which were late because of covid19.

Justice of Appeal Charmaine Pemberton issued the advice after attorneys for the State “strenuously objected” to an appellant being given extra time to file an application for relief from sanctions because they failed to meet court deadlines.

State attorney Kelisha Bello objected to the appeal for extra time on the basis that the appellant in the matter did not provide a reasonable explanation for the delay. She said she was not willing to accept the claim that the appellant’s attorneys’ offices had to be shut down because of possible exposure by a staff member to a covid19-positive case for sanitisation and for attorneys and other staff to be tested.

Evidence in the form of receipts from the company which sanitised the San Fernando law chambers of attorney Gerald Ramdeen and from the private laboratory which tested the attorneys were provided to the court to support the application to extend time.

In allowing the appeal for the extra time, Pemberton reminded attorneys, “If it’s one thing about this profession, in times past, there was something called professional courtesy.”

Both she and Justice of Appeal Prakash Moosai reminded that these were “unusual times” and held there was no intentional delay after having missed the court’s deadlines and granted Ramdeen the additional time to file the submissions he should have filed in early September.

Moosai said the appellant satisfied the test for relief from sanctions, adding that “this was a matter, having regard to the application, perhaps a less strict view could have been taken.”

According to Ramdeen, his law clerk was exposed to a covid19-positive case in late August and this prompted the closure of the south office while staff went into quarantine at home. In early September, the clerk began exhibiting flu-like symptoms and the entire office had to get tested.

In the application for relief from sanctions because they failed to adhere to the court’s directions for the filing of submissions in time, Ramdeen’s instructing attorney Dayadai Harripaul said the south office was only reopened on September 24, and the submissions were filed four days later, despite being out of time.

In allowing the application for relief from sanctions, the judges also made an order for no costs.