President of the British American Insurance Co Ltd and Colonial Life Insurance Co Ltd Policyholders Group (Bacol), Dr Patrick Antoine says he is looking forward to today’s case management matter as the Caribbean Court of Justice seeks to determine whether the T&T failed to promote the interests of consumers in the Caribbean Community by not providing adequate and effective redress following the collapse of CL Financial.
The legal action filed by Bacol represents policyholders of British American Insurance from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We have a right as consumers to be treated equitably and to be given the same access as T&T customers had. The avenues must in fact be adequate and they must be effective and we argued that we were not given the avenues of access when there was the meltdown that were adequate or effective,” Antoine said.
Bacol represents 2,000 policyholders with investments worth nearly EC$800 million (US$296 million).
“We have the opportunity to air the first case before the court and that has not been done in any case of this nature in the Caribbean at all. We are happy that the whole case is going to have a chance to be heard by the court and so we are equally confident as we were before. This is because the grounds are all tied one to the other: removal of restrictions, imposition of the restrictions and of course the grounds that are different in all of this is the one which talks about protecting consumer rights. The consumer rights we are talking about are the rights for us to essentially have adequate and effective redress in instances such as the ones that we are discussing,” Antoine said.
Antoine said the matter was filed a little shy of two years ago and has the possibility of being determined by the first quarter of next year.
“There are several things that we are looking at. History must never record that we did not try to fight for our rights as we view them in the Treaty of Chaguaramas. History must never record the people of the Eastern Caribbean in that way and indeed it shall not,” he said.
On March 2, the CCJ dismissed the majority of the claims brought by Bacol who alleged that T&T had breached various articles of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas in the aftermath of the collapse of CL Financial.
Bacol argued that the measures taken by the Government of T&T in its intervention in and assistance to CL Financial and its subsidiaries were discriminatory and breached Articles 7, 36, 37 and 38 of the Revised Treaty.
The claimants alleged that the bailout measures were taken to rescue CLF and all subsidiaries registered in T&T. But this same protection was not offered to them as policyholders of British American Insurance Company Limited.
Further, the Central Bank of T&T took active steps to exclude them from the rescue package. They also argued that the measures imposed restrictions on the provision of cross-border insurance services in contravention of Articles 36, 37 and 38 of the Revised Treaty.
When T&T filed its defence before the Court, it contended that the actions complained about fell outside the scope of the Revised Treaty.
In T&T’s view, the actions were ‘Activities in a member state involving the exercise of governmental authority’ under Articles 30(2) and (3) and such activities were excluded from the scope of operation of Chapter Three of the Revised Treaty.
The CCJ dismissed the majority of the Bacol claims, but did not dismiss its claim with respect to failure to promote the interests of consumers in the Community.
