BARBADOS–Former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey is one of several persons served with pre-action protocol letters by attorneys Alair Shepherd, QC, and Esther Obiora Arthur on behalf of the Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA).
Directors of Clico and British-American Insurance Company (Baico), as well as the Supervisor of Insurance in Barbados, the island's Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite and Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers have also been served with the letters which are accompanied by draft statements of claims.
The latter document lists a litany of alleged acts of negligence on the part of the directors and auditors of Baico and Clico, as well as alleged negligence and breach of statutory duties on the part of the then Supervisor of Insurance, all of which it is claimed contributed to the demise of the two companies, and massive losses to policyholders.
Attorney General Brathwaite is being sued as representing the Crown, which is responsible for the actions and defaults of the Supervisor of Insurance. The claims associated with Baico amount to Bdos$52 million, while those relating to Clico amount to $76 million. The defendants have 14 days to respond.
"It is with a heavy heart that BIPA has instructed its attorneys-at-law to proceed with these actions" says BIPA president June Fowler, "but as we approach the fourth anniversary of the collapse of Clico in Trinidad, the 35,000 policyholders of both Baico and Clico in Barbados are no closer to a satisfactory resolution, despite many of our regional neighbours having taken action and come up with plans, some of which are already repaying policyholders."
Fowler said numerous government self-imposed deadline promises have passed in Barbados with no results and there have been contradictory statements from those in authority which have left policyholders with more questions than answers, while the cost of judicial management increases daily with no discernible results favouring policyholders.
BIPA said it hoped the action will bring to justice those who failed in their statutory duties either by action or omission and were thus culpable in allowing the situation to develop and deteriorate unchecked. BIPA added that the respective judicial managers had failed to pursue these avenues to recover the shortfalls suffered by the companies and their policyholders.
"Having pursued various other more conciliatory avenues over the past two years without success," said Fowler, "BIPA has been left with no alternative but to represent the best interests of its members by taking this action."
While the alliance campaigns for the rights and restitution of funds to all 35,000 policyholders in Barbados, the court action names as claimants only those policyholders who are members of BIPA, so the recovery may be limited to the losses suffered by those individuals. In addition to Duprey, Baico directors named in the claim as defendants are Brian Branker and Robert Fullerton.
In the Clico claim, directors named as defendants are Leroy Parris, Anthony Ellis, Terrence Thornhill, Woodbine Davis, QC, Leslie Haynes, QC, Elridge Thompson, Adrian Lorde, Basil Springer, Edrick Griffith and Vishnu Ramlogan.