Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The State has been or­dered to pay more than $163,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to for­mer State pathol­o­gist Hughvon des Vi­gnes for fail­ing to pay him a gra­tu­ity be­tween 2016 and 2019. 

High Court Judge West­min James or­dered the com­pen­sa­tion for des Vi­gnes in a re­cent de­ci­sion. 

Ac­cord­ing to the ev­i­dence in the case, be­tween Feb­ru­ary 2013 and Jan­u­ary 2016, des Vi­gnes was on a three-year con­tract which guar­an­teed him a gra­tu­ity based on 20 per cent of his gross salary, up­on com­ple­tion. 

Af­ter his con­tract end­ed, des Vi­gnes con­tin­ued to per­form post-mortems at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James un­der an in­ter­im work­ing arrange­ment. 

The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty of­fered him a for­mal con­tract but he re­ject­ed it and stopped work­ing as the terms were un­favourable to him. 

The min­istry wait­ed al­most five years be­fore it paid him his gra­tu­ity for 2013 to 2016 in 2021. He filed the case seek­ing his gra­tu­ity for 2016 to 2019. 

The min­istry claimed he was not en­ti­tled as he was not work­ing un­der a for­mal con­tract.

Jus­tice James up­held des Vi­gnes’ claim.

“I dis­agree with the de­fen­dant’s wit­ness that the claimant is not en­ti­tled to gra­tu­ity un­less he signed the for­mal con­tract, which he re­ject­ed,” he said. 

“The claimant is en­ti­tled to gra­tu­ity based on the in­ter­im con­tract un­der which the par­ties were op­er­at­ing,” he added. 

The com­pen­sa­tion or­dered rep­re­sents the gra­tu­ity owed plus in­ter­est. 

The State was al­so or­dered to pay des Vi­gnes $38,108.20 in le­gal costs. 

Des Vi­gnes will not im­me­di­ate­ly re­ceive the com­pen­sa­tion as Jus­tice James grant­ed a 42-day stay of his or­der.  

Des Vi­gnes’ son Hans, a broad­cast­er, has been tipped to con­test the Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy on be­half of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced his plan to re­tire from elec­toral pol­i­tics. 

Des Vi­gnes was rep­re­sent­ed by Lemuel Mur­phy and Alex­ia Romero. The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was rep­re­sent­ed by Lianne Thomas and Rachel Ja­cob.