President of the British American Insurance Co Ltd and Clico Policyholders Group (BACOL), Dr Patrick Antoine, has expressed cautious optimism as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) prepares to hear a lawsuit against the T&T government over the 2009 collapse of the insurance giants.
“Look, when you go to court, you’re placing your fate and, in some sense, your destiny, in the hands of men and women who are mortal,” Antoine told a news conference ahead of the matter being heard by CCJ on Monday and Tuesday next week.
BACOL said that after 15 years of perseverance, it has “significantly advanced the pursuit of financial justice” for policyholders in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines who have “suffered extreme financial loss and hardship” after the collapse of the British American Insurance Co Ltd (BAICO).
BACOL said the collapse resulted in losses of over EC$800 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) to businesses and individuals.
The CCJ will hear arguments related to BAICO policyholders, but Antoine said that once it determines those matters, “it is going to have an immediate and identical application to the Clico case because it’s the same matters … and the same basis or cause of action that we are going after on the Clico matters for Clico policyholders.” He said there was, therefore, no point in trying to launch two cases at the same time.
Antoine said that the case will be brought in the original jurisdiction of the CCJ, which also serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement (Caricom).
“So, there is no right of appeal because this is, in fact, the CCJ as an international court and it’s the final court," Antoine said, adding that this is "the most complex case that we’ve had in the community involving six different jurisdictions together.”
Also speaking at the news conference, KL Menns, a regional integration treaties lawyer, said the case concerns “a pure question of fairness, discrimination and levelling the playing field for … Caribbean Community consumers.”
She said the CCJ will be asked to rule on two main issues.
One is whether the government of T&T “effectively, factually favoured … nationals of the Republic of T&T, and by the deliberate use and expropriation of the CL Financial group assets to benefit the Trinidadian policyholders only, to compensate its policyholders only and to form a new business entity which benefited its policyholders only, it discriminated against the Grenadian and Antiguan policyholders.”
The other issue would be whether T&T “created and engaged in a legislative process that was discriminatory and prejudicial in the sense that it forestalled and prevented non-nationals and other groups not already subject to their compensation scheme…from bringing any claims against the government of Trinidad and Tobago …” (CMC)