Namdevco to compensate expelled Macoya vendors

NAMDEVCO has been ordered to compensate a vendor and his mother for expelling them from the farmers’ wholesale market in Macoya because they arrived ten minutes late to pay the licence fee for their stall for December 2019.

In a judgment delivered on Monday, Justice Ricky Rahim held that Namdevco's decision to refuse to accept the rent for ten stall spots from Kel Ali and his mother Lou Ann Gonzales was unreasonable.

He ordered the agency to compensate the two, which will be quantified by a Master, and also quashed the decision.

Ali and his mother said they had 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 their employee arrived ten minutes late.

Rahim said while the failure to consider the effect that the nonpayment of the fee would have on the livelihood of the two, whose “patrimony has formed part of the goodwill of the core business of the defendant,” did not make the decision unreasonable, since they knew the consequences if they did not pay their fees, what did make it unreasonable was that it was only a ten-minute delay.

In their lawsuit, they said they were unable to pay for January 2020, and were told they were being expelled from the market. According to their lawsuit, they were unable to trade as they had done for the past 12 years and were deprived of the opportunity to earn a living.

Ali also claimed they were not given an opportunity to be heard when they were expelled. However, the judge dismissed this argument.

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 they had ample notice of the deadline to pay and of the consequences if they failed to pay on time.

Rahim said last-minute payment could not be a reasonable consideration when determining whether to permit payment outside the prescribed time for doing so.

“This reason is irrational in the court’s view, as by the very policy of the defendant, the last day is counted as a day for payment right up to the time of the deadline. It is therefore unfair to consider vendors who, for whatever reasons, pay on the last day or at the last minute as it were as being persons akin those who breach the policy.

“By so considering them, the message is that they are not being treated equally to those who pay well before the deadline,” the judge said.

Ali, who took over from his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, 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 on selling at the market.

The judge acknowledged it was not the first dispute between the parties, and although the first one was settled, Rahim said there was no evidence to suggest the two were treated unfairly because of this.

Ali and his mother were represented by attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Kiel Taklalsingh and Lana Lakhan. Namdevco was represented by attorneys Ronnie Bissessar and Varin Gopaul-Gosine.