Another bid has been made to discharge an ongoing injunction freezing the assets of the Public Services Association (PSA) and a corresponding application for it to be held in contempt of court.
Lawyers representing the PSA made submissions during a virtual hearing before Justice Devindra Rampersad on Monday.
Five PSA members had obtained the injunction from High Court Judge Frank Seepersad in late December and the PSA’s attorney, Raviv Persad, claimed that they should not be allowed to pursue the application to hold the organisation in contempt.
Persad said that while the five members are contending that his client breached a series of court orders granted by Justice Rampersad in early 2020 in a lawsuit over the trade union’s handling of elections for representatives of its various sections, they failed to notify the union of its alleged breaches before filing the application as required.
Persad said the PSA officials named in the initial lawsuit, including former president Watson Duke, no longer hold positions in the organisation and that the members, Curtis Cuffie, Demetrius Harrison, Annisha Persad, Curtis Meade, and Duaine Hewitt, failed to identify specific instances in which they allege the union breached Justice Rampersad’s orders.
Persad stated: “We want a balance to be struck to allow the organisation to operate. There are urgent matters which the union has to deal with,” he said.
Attorney Raisa Caesar, in response, called on Justice Rampersad to keep the injunction in place pending his determination of the contempt application.
She suggested that the change in the executive of the union did not justify the alleged non-compliance.
“It was a continuing breach starting with the previous executive and moving on with the new,” she said.
COMMENTS