The attorney for former Colina President James Campbell on Thursday gave reasons why he felt Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen should render a judgment that might land Colina executive Emmanuel Alexiou in jail for contempt of court.
Milton Evans, who along with Philip “Brave” Davis represents Mr. Campbell, appeared before the senior justice seeking to convince her to have Mr. Alexiou jailed for disobeying Justice Allen’s order of January 20, 2006.
In that order, Justice Allen directed Mr. Alexiou to pay Mr. Campbell $9 million forthwith to buy out his interest in Colina. That particular development came after a nasty fallout between Mr. Campbell and his former Colina partners with whom he had built the group of companies.
Mr. Evans suggested to Justice Allen that Mr. Alexiou, by not paying the $9 million he was ordered to pay Mr. Campbell “forthwith” – a term he and Mr. Davis construed as meaning “immediately, as the circumstances permit” – had both denied Mr. Campbell the fruits of his judgment and obstructed the administration of justice.
Colin Callender, counsel for Mr. Alexiou, attempted to refute Mr. Evans’ assertions.
Mr. Evans argued that Mr. Alexiou had knowledge of his obligation to pay Mr. Campbell, and the means to do so, as soon as Justice Allen gave the order, and that by not doing so he did “great harm” to the reputation of the court.
Mr. Callender confirmed that, “There is no question the monies were available.”
Mr. Callender first attempted to show that under Bahamian law, his client could not be jailed for disobeying the order because he was appealing the order that he disobeyed.
After Justice Allen established that the choice of punishment for an offence, if she found that there was one, was hers to make, Mr. Callender went on to cite a number of cases in which the sitting judges ruled that committal was either inappropriate or a last resort.
A number of times during Mr. Callender’s submissions, Justice Allen stopped him and attempted to direct his remarks to the point. The only issue, she said, was whether the conduct of Mr. Alexiou and Colina executive Anthony Ferguson – the two defendants in the matter – was ‘contumacious’ (amounted to contempt of court).
Earlier in the day, Justice Allen ruled that the matter of whether to commit Mr. Alexiou ought to continue, though she seemed reluctant to deliver a ruling that might send Mr. Alexiou to jail.
The cause for Justice Allen’s concern was the absence of concrete testimony as to the contents of documents that may or may not have been properly served on Mr. Alexiou in the matter of the contempt proceedings.
“These are committal proceedings; a person can be sent to jail if I determine that they were in contempt of an order of this court,” Justice Allen pointed out.
Constable Cooper, an officer attached to the Summons and Warrants section of the Prosecutor’s Office, testified on Thursday that he approached Mr. Alexiou at about 6:20am on February 6, and after identifying himself, attempted to serve Mr. Alexiou with the documents.
Constable Cooper admitted on cross-examination by Mr. Callender that he was unable to say the nature of the documents he allegedly served on Mr. Alexiou. The constable was able to say that there was summons on top, but could not recall on Thursday what the other documents were.
When Mr. Callender asked him if he knew the content of the documents at the time he swore an affidavit saying he had served Mr. Alexiou, Constable Cooper responded: “No sir, not to the full degree.”
The next witness was Barbara Cartwright, a former Colina employee who was reportedly present to help Constable Cooper identify Mr. Alexiou.
The court heard that it was she who gave the constable the documents to serve, and she also could not say what was in those documents.
She revealed that she had gotten the documents from attorney Shadrach Morris some days before giving them to Constable Cooper to serve on Mr. Alexiou. Ms. Cartwright also told the court she was unaware of the exact contents of the documents.
Mr. Morris had been in court all morning, but was absent during the time his involvement was under discussion.
Constable Cooper testified that Mr. Alexiou had run away from him – a charge Mr. Alexiou categorically denied – and that he had placed the documents at Mr. Alexiou’s feet.
This placing of the documents at the feet of a person who refuses to accept them legally constitutes service of those documents, Justice Allen pointed out when questions as to the propriety of the service were raised.
Mr. Alexiou denied having been served any documents relating to the motion filed against him for contempt of court.
Justice Allen adjourned the matter of March 7.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
