Tribute to late Kenneth Sagar

THE EDITOR: On March 30 we witnessed the funeral of one of the bravest and most brilliant minds in the legal fraternity – Kenneth Sagar. He was the recipient of an Upper Second Class Honours law degree and one of the first graduates of our local Hugh Wooding Law School. Sagar was not just an academic luminary, but a very logical/practical legal person also.

His formidable training as a young barrister in the 1970s began under the guidance of (the late) Dr Fenton Ramsahoye, another phenomenal legal mind in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Sagar spent his entire life devoted to family and to the practice of law. But to some it seemed his first love was the law.

His characteristic and endearing qualities in law were his consistency, discipline and fearlessness. He was never seen to request an extension of time to file submissions in a case. Lack of preparedness was foreign to him.

He was also the advocate who was never afraid to tell judges when (in his opinion) they had committed an error. Once, he unhesitatingly told Judge Bereaux (now Justice of Appeal) that he was wrong to visit the
locus in quo (the place where a legal cause of action arose) with the attorneys and parties in an injunction hearing to determine if a land tenant had exceeded his status on a parcel of land.

His successes abound in our law courts and are forever engraved in the Law Library of TT.

He appeared as advocate attorney in the famous case of a probationary bank employee who had voluntarily participated in a log race event at the company's annual sports day and suffered severe leg injuries.

After many attorneys returned the brief, Sagar took up the mantle and argued the matter brilliantly and skillfully. Justice Rampersad who, upon hearing the exact and laser-focused cross-examination, ruled (soon after) in favour of the worker (Wesley Gabriel v RBTT). That case was never appealed.

He famously gave back Japs Fried Chicken its first home when its founder (now deceased) Bhagwattee Maraj was being evicted from the location in Foster Road, Sangre Grande (Winston Cooper v Bhagwattee Maraj and other).

He was known for very surgical and precise cross-examination (lasting no more than one hour). In one case he argued (before retired Judge Narine when he was in the High Court) over the sale of pumpkins to a large supermarket in Arouca against another leading attorney (Senior Counsel) and won. His cross-questioning was flawless and on point.

Arguably, one of his best performances came in the Court of Appeal case of Deosaran v National Lotteries Board where he convinced the panel that the chamber court judge had gotten it all wrong to grant the board an extension of time to file a record of appeal.

Several judges witnessed his phenomenal abilities in trial and gave him the ultimate respect he deserved. For example, now retired Justice of Appeal Narine, Justices Pemberton (now Justice of Appeal) and Gobin, to name a few.

"Anyone who gets that black diary of Mr Sagar will be fixed for life," Justice Gobin once said in open court.

He similarly held the utmost respect of all lawyers who knew him. A leading senior practitioner in family law said recently that "Sagar was always ready and willing to stand up for you." Another senior attorney said Sagar took a keen interest in her early development in the profession and encouraged her to go into private practice.

Speaking for myself, he will be remembered as the attorney who supported me throughout my career and was never once too busy to speak to me on the phone. May God bless his soul.

YASEEN AHMED

via e-mail