JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Judiciary ‘deeply saddened’ by Des Vignes’ passing

by

1259 days ago
20220127
Former Appeal Court judge Andre Des Vignes.

Former Appeal Court judge Andre Des Vignes.

(Image courtesy The Catholic News)

The Ju­di­cia­ry has ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of for­mer Ap­peal Court Judge An­dre des Vi­gnes, who passed away on Mon­day morn­ing.

A re­lease is­sued late on Tues­day stat­ed that Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, the Judges of the Supreme Court and oth­er staff were deeply sad­dened by des Vi­gnes’ pass­ing.

“The Chief Jus­tice, Judges, Ju­di­cial Of­fi­cers, Man­age­ment and Staff of the Ju­di­cia­ry ex­tend to his dear wife and chil­dren and the rest of his fam­i­ly their heart­felt con­do­lences on what we know is their deep loss and sor­row,” it said.

It stat­ed that in ad­di­tion to pro­vid­ing yeo­man ser­vice in the High Court and Court of Ap­peal, des Vi­gnes al­so served as a mem­ber of the Ju­di­cial Ed­u­ca­tion In­sti­tute of T&T (JEITT).

“His judg­ments, many of which are of land­mark im­port, were known for their clar­i­ty and dis­play of su­pe­ri­or le­gal acu­men,” it said.

De­scrib­ing des Vi­gnes as kind, hum­ble and en­gag­ing, the Ju­di­cia­ry not­ed that his pleas­ant de­meanour was ev­i­dent to Ju­di­cia­ry staff even be­fore he joined the or­gan­i­sa­tion in 2009.

“His in­ter­ac­tions then, as they were in his time on the bench, with Ju­di­cia­ry staff were al­ways cor­dial, un­fussy and kind and he showed a deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion for them and their work,” it said.

Sev­er­al so­cial jus­tice NGOs, he was in­volved with through­out his life, took to so­cial me­dia be­tween late Mon­day and Tues­day morn­ing to mourn his pass­ing.

Chair of the Catholic Com­mis­sion for So­cial Jus­tice (CC­SJ) Leela Ramdeen said she and the or­gan­i­sa­tion, of which des Vi­gnes was a found­ing mem­ber, were deeply sad­dened by the news. 

She said that he al­ways ex­ud­ed kind qual­i­ties since she knew him.

“First­ly, he was a man of deep abid­ing faith; a com­pas­sion­ate man who was com­mit­ted to the pro­mo­tion of jus­tice; a man of in­tegri­ty; a hum­ble, gen­tle and right­eous man whose amaz­ing in­tel­lect and lofty po­si­tions did not lead him to for­get the needs of the less for­tu­nate,” Ramdeen said. 

She not­ed that over the past year he as­sist­ed the or­gan­i­sa­tion in de­vel­op­ing and im­ple­ment­ing its vir­tu­al le­gal aid clin­ic. 

“In spite of his busy sched­ule, he com­mit­ted to work with us on a month­ly ba­sis to pro­vide pro bono ad­vice to those who ac­cessed the clin­ic,” Ramdeen said.

Des Vi­gnes’ fam­i­ly is still in the process of fi­nal­is­ing fu­ner­al arrange­ments. 


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored