Cunupia FC's lawyer Peter Taylor has stated that he did not serve his client's short-lived lawsuit against T&T Football Association (TTFA) President William Wallace and his remaning executive members via Whatsapp.
Taylor reached out to Guardian Media Sports yesterday as he claimed that Wallace's lawyers had incorrectly alleged that they were improperly served via the popular messaging system.
Taylor noted that the filed proceedings, which have since been withdrawn, were served via email, as required under the Civil Proceedings Rules 1998. Guardian Media Sports has seen the email sent by Taylor to Wallace, Taylor and Sam dated October 8, 2020.
In the original court filings, the club was challenging Wallace and his team's decision not to withdraw the case, which they eventually won.
Taylor said: "The Defendants' actions were grossly negligent, highly reckless, unethical and irresponsible and without due regard to the statutory underpinning which binds the actions of the Association since they knew or ought to have known that failure to withdraw the action in the High Court would result in the suspension of T&T and all the attendant adverse consequences flowing therefrom."
The club claimed that Wallace and his team went against the wishes of the majority of its member associations, who voted to withdraw the case, before FIFA announced the association's suspension, last month.
"The Defendants' decision not to obey the majority vote of its membership to withdrawing the High Court action is inconsistent with good administration," Taylor stated.
It stated that through the suspension it would miss out on participating in regional club tournaments and receiving corresponding funding, totalling $4.5 million.
Responding to the lawsuit, Wallace's lawyer Matthew Gayle made the allegation on the service of the lawsuit and suggested that it be withdrawn as it was doomed to fail.
Gayle questioned why Taylor claimed that Wallace and his team in their personal capacity breached an alleged contractual agreement with the club, when no such contract existed.
He also queried the club's claim that is sponsorship and funding issues were caused by Wallace and his team's case before Gobin.
"There is no nexus between your client's purported potential and/or theoretical future losses, which the claim compounds by rightly and properly recognising my client as the "duly elected President".
Gayle suggested that the $4.5 million in loses in Government and private funding was not guaranteed as it was dependent on the team's qualifications for regional club tournaments.
"In any event, no causation is predicated and the purported potential/anticipated losses are predicated on the occurrence of several events which ate yet to take place or may never do," he said, as he suggested that the case was based on speculation.
The case was eventually withdrawn on Tuesday. Gayle has since requested that the club apologise and pay his client's legal costs incurred in responding to the case.