Colina executives Emmanuel Alexiou and Anthony Ferguson will have to wait another week before hearing whether they will be found in contempt of court for failing to pay former Colina President James Campbell $9 million “forthwith”.
Justice Anita Allen was expected to rule on the matter on Wednesday. However, she indicated that she was dealing with other matters and put off her decision until next week Wednesday.
Mr. Campbell’s legal team wants to have the Colina executives jailed for failing to obey Justice Allen’s January 20 order to pay the money immediately.
Messrs Alexiou and Ferguson had agreed that Colina would purchase Mr. Campbell’s interests in the Colina Financial Group (CFG) at a fair market value to be determined by experts.
The consent order provided for an initial payment of $3.5 million and for the further payment of $9 million on or before August 31, 2005.
However Colina paid Mr. Campbell $3.5 million and then later determined that his interest was not valued at $12.5 million, leading to the legal spat over the $9 million.
Mr. Campbell then sued his former partners, alleging oppressive and unfair conduct on their part.
Messrs Alexiou and Ferguson had quickly appealed to the Court of Appeal to stay Justice Allen’s January ruling, but the Court of Appeal ruled in February that the $3.5 million be paid to Mr. Campbell, who has agreed to pay the money back should his former partners win an appeal before the Privy Council
On Wednesday, Milton Evans and Phillip “Brave” Davis, Mr. Campbell’s attorneys, were given a copy of the Court of Appeal’s February ruling, which outlined in detail the reasons why the court dismissed the appeal filed by Messrs Alexiou and Ferguson.
The 18-page ruling indicated that experts were not only aware of the values agreed on, but also in the context of the order, they were bound to act on them in determining the fair market value of the respondent’s shares.
“Mr. (John) Wilson (Mr. Ferguson’s attorney) has contended that there is ambiguity in the consent order and therefore we ought to stay the order of Justice Allen as this may very well be a case of unilateral mistake, which is a ground on which the lower court would have jurisdiction to intervene,” the ruling says.
“We do not agree. This consent order was drafted and agreed on by experienced counsel in keeping with their clients’ instructions.”
The ruling also outlined that the appeal had been dismissed because the court was of the view that the obligation to make the $9 million payment cannot be altered or varied.
“In the premises we dismissed the appeals at the conclusion on the hearing and affirmed the order of Justice Allen. The application for a stay of the order was refused. We further ordered (Messrs Alexiou and Ferguson) to pay interest on the sum of $9 million at 10 percent per annum with effect from September 1, 2005,” the ruling said.
Even though Messrs Alexiou and Ferguson have already paid the $9 million, Mr. Campbell’s attorneys insist that because they did not pay “forthwith” they should be held in contempt of court and jailed.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
