Derek Achong
Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A High Court Master has set aside an over $300,000 default judgment obtained against the widow of five-time Calypso Monarch Leroy “Black Stalin” Calliste by a photojournalist for the unauthorised use of a photograph of her late husband.
On Tuesday, Master Wrenerson Lochan upheld an application brought by Janet Calliste to effectively annul the judgment obtained against her by Angelo Marcelle earlier this year.
Master Lochan also ordered Marcelle to pay the legal costs incurred by Calliste’s wife in pursuing the procedural application.
The decision means that the case will now have to proceed to trial before a High Court judge.
Late last year, Marcelle, trading as Trinirazzi HD, sued Calliste’s wife after the image he took of her husband at De Nu Pub in Woodbrook in 2011 appeared on promotional material for a Black Stalin-themed concert on October 4.
Marcelle claimed that Calliste’s wife did not seek his permission before allowing the promoter to use the photograph, which was previously published by the T&T Newsday newspaper with his approval.
Although Marcelle objected to the unauthorised use of his photograph before filing the lawsuit, the photograph was not removed from television and social media advertising, and the concert was eventually held at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA).
Marcelle claimed over $360,000 in compensation, which was based on his daily fee for the use of an image on television and social media.
“The unauthorised use of the claimant’s copyrighted work has caused the claimant to suffer loss,” his lawyers claimed.
In February, Marcelle, through his attorneys, Nigel Trancoso and David Carter, obtained a default judgement against Calliste’s wife after she failed to make an appearance in the case or file a defence.
Over a month after the court order was served on her, Calliste’s wife filed an application for the judgment to be set aside.
In her court filings, obtained by Guardian Media, her lawyers, led by Ernest Koylass, SC, sought to explain his client’s failure to defend the lawsuit.
“The Defendant is a 77-year-old widow in uncertain health, and her failure to file an appearance and later defence was unknowing of the consequence and not intentional,” her lawyers said.
“The Defendant is without means to afford an attorney-at-law and is reliant on the generosity and goodwill of an attorney-at-law to assist her in taking the necessary steps to defend the claim,” they added.
They also claimed that Marcelle should not have been granted the exact figure claimed in his lawsuit, as any compensation should have been independently assessed by a judicial officer.
Calliste won his first Calypso Monarch title in 1979 with Caribbean Man (Caribbean Unity) and Play One.
He won three more titles in 1985, 1987, and 1991 before securing his final crown in 1995 with In Time and Tribute to Sundar Popo.
He died on December 28, 2022, at the age of 81.