Jensen La Vende
The State has been granted permission to challenge at the Privy Council a Court of Appeal ruling which awarded $300,000 in damages, plus additional costs, to Tobago resident Colin Simmons.
In a draft order delivered Tuesday, Appeal Court Judges Peter Rajkumar, Maria Wilson, and Geoffrey Henderson allowed the State to appeal aspects of the ruling, which stemmed from Simmons’ unlawful imprisonment claim.
Simmons had originally been awarded $900,000 in damages by High Court Judge Margaret Mohammed in March 2021, who found that his constitutional rights were breached when he was denied the opportunity to file an appeal against a marijuana trafficking conviction. Justice Mohammed also awarded him $60,000 in vindicatory damages and $20,000 for breach of constitutional rights.
However, in July, a different Appeal Court panel—comprising Justices Mark Mohammed, Rajkumar, and Wilson—reduced the damages to $300,000, while upholding the other awards. The panel ruled that the three and a half years Simmons spent in custody were not entirely an unlawful deprivation of liberty, as his imprisonment had been under a valid magistrate’s warrant.
Simmons’ appeal to be compensated for loss of earnings during his incarceration was also dismissed, while the State’s cross-appeal successfully reduced the damages. Interest was set at 2.5 per cent per annum from the date of service of the claim to judgment.
The current panel has now given the State leave to appeal to the Privy Council on the $300,000 award, along with the $60,000 in vindicatory damages and $20,000 for breach of rights.
Simmons was sentenced in June 2010 to five years’ hard labour by then senior magistrate Annette McKenzie on a marijuana trafficking charge. He completed his sentence in October 2013. In 2015, the Court of Appeal granted him an extension of time to appeal. His appeal was heard in January 2016, and his conviction was overturned retroactively.
