Derek Achong

At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing the Law As­so­ci­a­tion yes­ter­day de­scribed the sanc­tions im­posed by the Civ­il Pro­ce­dure Rules (CPR) 1998 as un­con­sti­tu­tion­al. While mak­ing le­gal sub­mis­sions, Se­nior Coun­sel Fyard Ho­sein, who is rep­re­sent­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion, said sanc­tions im­posed for the late fil­ing of doc­u­ments in Sec­tion 26 of the CPR af­fect the con­sti­tu­tion­al right of ac­cess to jus­tice. Ho­sein said the sanc­tions should on­ly be im­posed at the dis­cre­tion of a judge who con­sid­ers each case on its facts. He de­scribed sec­tions of the CPR as in­con­sis­tent and ar­bi­trary.

Ho­sein was mak­ing sub­mis­sions in a con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion suit be­fore Jus­tice Vasheist Kokaram in the Port-of-Spain High Court brought by for­mer Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira. Par­al­lel to Nunez-Tesheira's mo­tion is a med­ical neg­li­gence suit for more than $20 mil­lion which was ini­ti­at­ed af­ter her hus­band Rus­sell's death on April 13, 2004. Nunez-Tesheira con­tends that her hus­band's death was due to med­ical neg­li­gence at the Gulf View Med­ical Cen­tre. Her law­suit al­so lists urol­o­gist Dr Lester Goetz and anaes­the­si­ol­o­gist Dr Crisen Jen­dra Roopc­hand. All three have de­nied thxe al­le­ga­tions. Rus­sell Tesheira, 53, was vice-pres­i­dent of sales and agen­cies ad­min­is­tra­tion at Cli­co.

The con­sti­tu­tion mo­tion was brought af­ter Nunez-Tesheira's law­suit was sub­ject­ed to the sanc­tions con­tained in the CPR.. Nunez-Tesheira faces sanc­tions for twice fail­ing to file ex­pert med­ical ev­i­dence with­in the al­lot­ted time frame or­dered by Kokaram. The of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was first list­ed as a de­fen­dant in the mat­ter, while the as­so­ci­a­tion joined the mat­ter as an in­ter­est­ed par­ty. Nunez-Tesheira's le­gal team in­cludes Dou­glas Mendes, SC, Si­mon de la Bastide and Nyree Alphon­so. Rus­sell Mar­tineau, SC and Ger­ard Ramdeen are rep­re­sent­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al in the con­sti­tu­tion­al ac­tion. At­tor­ney Rishi Dass is al­so rep­re­sent­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion. The mat­ter con­tin­ues to­day.