CCJ dismisses appeal by Guyana AG

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has dismissed an appeal by the Attorney General (AG) of Guyana in a $446 million contractual dispute between that government and Dipcon Engineering Ltd, a company based in Trinidad.

Guyana’s AG sought to have the CCJ – that country’s highest appellate court – overturn a decision of the Court of Appeal of Guyana, which declined the State’s application to extend the time to appeal the decision of a Supreme Court judge. The judge ruled that Dipcon could recover from the Government of Guyana US$665,032.17, due to the engineering company for road-building and construction work and US$1,563,368.50 for increased costs incurred by Dipcon during the project.

The application to the Court of Appeal was made more than six months after the legally prescribed time to appeal the court’s ruling and was dismissed. The High Court judgment was delivered in October 2015. Dipcon took the government to court in 2009, while the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) was in government.

In its application to the Trinidad-based court, the Guyana Government blamed the extended delay on a change of legal representation after the May 2015 general election in that country. It was argued that the new AG was unaware of the case or the judgment against the State. In its ruling, the CCJ judges determined that since the appeal concerned a procedural issue, it did not fall under the umbrella of section 6 of the Guyana CCJ Act.

The court, led by president Sir Dennis Byron, said the correct procedure would have been for the State to apply for and obtain special leave from the CCJ under section 8 of the act, as well as an extension of time to do so, since the CCJ rules required this to be done within 42 days of the Court of Appeal ruling in January.

“Since this was not done, the CCJ found that it had no jurisdiction to allow the appeal against the Court of Appeal’s refusal to grant an extension of time,” said Justice Denys Barrow, who wrote the judgment.

Barrow said the court acknowledged that it may, in a proper case, grant an extension of time to comply with its rules to prevent a clear miscarriage of justice, but found the reasons offered by the Guyana government for failing to appeal the Supreme Court’s ruling within the prescribed time to be unacceptable. Also presiding over the matter were Justices Jacob Wit, David Hayton and Maureen Rajnauth-Lee.