Ramadhar to write AG on Paria payments in 7 days

Attorney Prakash Ramadhar said he will be writing to the Attorney General in a week to begin the judicial settlement process for his clients – the families of the men who died in the Paria diving tragedy – if the process is not initiated this week.

Speaking to media at his office in Curepe on May 12, he said he hoped the families could receive payment as soon as possible.

On February 25, 2022, Christopher Boodram together with co-workers Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar, were repairing a 30-inch pipeline at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility when they were sucked into it. Only Boodram survived.

On March 3, then-prime minister Stuart Young announced that government would pay $1 million to Boodram, and $1 million each to the families of the deceased divers as ex-gratia payments.

On April 22, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries wrote to the attorneys asking them where to send the payment, a day after Ramadhar initiated a public countdown on the issue.

On April 25, the government again wrote to the attorneys saying they needed to have letters of administration before payment could be made.

On May 8, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she would compensate the families and suggested a judicial settlement to eliminate possible conflicts of interest and resolving the issue of payments.

Ramadhar congratulated Persad-Bissessar for her robust approach before the election where she said it was the intent of the UNC coalition government to ensure that the families received an ex-gratia payment.

“The Prime Minister said last week she would live to her word, and I’ve known her to be forthright to these things, and said at the same time she would prefer a judicial conference, a formal hearing so whatever we do would have a level of transparency and the approval of a court system. I am all for that.

“She has always maintained that if there is justice to be had for people, let them have it, and the technical, bureaucratic issues will follow.”

He reminded that letters of administration take an extremely long time to achieve, so he thought Persad-Bissessar’s suggestion of a judicial conference is the best way forward.

“In relation to one of the families there is no problem, but as the PM indicated, there are several people who are not readily evidenced as being members of the family. If we had known that would be necessary, we could have sorted that out before the election.

“In order to achieve that level of transparency and integrity of the process, I think she was completely correct.

“We are awaiting either a letter from the AG and if we don’t hear from him in a week, we will be writing to him to trigger that process to bring a level of comfort to the families in the shortest possible time.”

Ramadhar explained there are two streams within the judicial system – litigation or the judges themselves can sit over a matter.

“This is done in a lot of cases, to have a mediation process. They make suggestions to both sides, put all you have before the judge, the judge makes a suggestion and either or both sides could agree to it or disagree.

“And if you could reach an agreement before that, then there’s something akin to a court order, where the level of oversight is from a judicial authority.”

He said he hoped the final figure would be more than $1 million and said it could be a starting point, as the families needed money now.

“It is entirely up to the judiciary as to how soon this could be achieved.

“This is an ex-gratia payment and there’s a promise of $1 million.

“It is my humble opinion the family should be entitled to far more than that, having regard not only to the death itself, but the pain and suffering of each individual member, who would have been traumatised possibly for the rest of their lives, unless there is some level of health they could receive, which could be quite expensive.

“If we could achieve some part payment immediately, it could be some comfort to them. If it is we cannot achieve some global settlement figure, we will have no choice but to pursue the matter before the courts.”

He said he wanted to speak to the AG as there was no query as to who certain members of the families would be but there might be people who would want to join in after.

“That is why conference and discussions are important, as you can get rid of some of the technical, artificial things that can be put in your way to avoid justice.”

Ramadhar said the lawyers working with the families have committed to not taking any fees for the work they have done.

“We do a lot of pro-bono work. This case in particular screams out for justice and we will not be receiving a single cent, not one dollar in any form or fashion, from the settlement of this case.”

Ramadhar said while the Commission of Enquiry into the tragedy was necessary as it brought out a lot of information, the government had the responsibility and authority to help the families who were in need as their breadwinners have died, and Boodram was left injured.

He said while he kept hearing there was a shortage of funds, the TT economy is a multi-billion dollar one, and the money could be found to pay the families.

“I know the present government has indicated it will create new streams of income, which is a must in our society. In the larger scheme of things, $5 million or $20 million for something as awful as this, I am sure you will be able to source the funds for that.

“You might recall the budget for the Office of the Prime Minister in the last administration was $823,796,200 and that is why it was a little troubling to us that when the PM of the day, Mr Young, indicated there would be an ex-gratia payment, the letter came from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries. I would have thought that a prime ministerial word would have meant the budget would come from the OPM.

“So there are easy solutions once you have the will.”

Ramadhar, who represents the Kurban and Henry families, said he knew from the beginning Young’s offer was made in bad faith.

“Since the event, we have been making public calls to the government of the day to make these payments without admitting liability and if it was they did so, and the clients were satisfied, that would have been the end of the matter without them having to go through the horror of a court process that would have taken years to complete.

“We had received two responses to pre-action protocol letters from Paria, indicating they had no liability whatsoever.”

Ramadhar said people did not understand the emotional injury which could occur from horrible tragedies such as the Paria incident. He said he hoped this could be a test case for cases of injuries in the course of work.

“It is a burden you carry for the rest of your life. It is my view that the awards given by our local courts for personal injuries, loss of limb, loss of sight and so, have been way too low. The Privy Council has been signalling to us that the awards by our local courts have been far too low. This could be the catalyst to revisit how we value life and limb in our local society.”

He said workers will lose a limb and be awarded a couple hundred thousand dollars, while awards for slander and libel are closer to $1 million. He said the awards are out of sync.