Magistrate challenges DPP again through appeal
Senior Magistrate Alex Moore on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Berbice Full Court against a decision by Justice Navindra Singh to strike out a $50M defamation lawsuit he brought against Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Senior Counsel Shalimar Ali-Hack.
In a Statement of Claim filed in July 2020, Magistrate Moore, a practising Attorney-at-Law for 14 years, asked the court to award him millions in damages for defamation of character. The 42-year-old Magistrate alleged that he was defamed in a letter penned by the DPP to Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Chief Justice Roxane George.
The letter was dated December 5, 2019, “Re: Conduct of Magistrate Alex Moore in the charge of the Police vs Marcus Bisram for the offence of murder, Contrary to Common Law”. According to Moore, the letter was falsely and maliciously written by the DPP.
Moore said that the letter suggested that he was not acting impartially in the matter, and, was, therefore unfit to sit as a Magistrate in a murder Preliminary Inquiry against Marcus Bisram by the State, for which proceedings were being conducted at the Whim Magistrate’s Court.
Magistrate Moore, through his lawyer, Arudranauth Gossai, noted that the contents of the letter have greatly injured his character, credibility and has caused him embarrassment and depression.
In reply, the DPP filed an application asking that the lawsuit be struck out on the basis that it is frivolous, vexatious, an abuse of the court process and disclosed no reasonable cause for bringing the claim. Ali-Hack also took issue with Magistrate Moore suing her in her personal capacity, instead of in her official office as Director of Public Prosecutions.
The DPP submitted that her letter refers to her acting in her professional capacity as Director of Public Prosecutions, and not in her personal capacity. She contended that the lawsuit against her in her personal capacity was procedurally incorrect as she is protected under the laws of Guyana in the execution of the functions of her office as a public officer.
Senior Counsel Robin Stoby, Senior Counsel Jamela Ali and Attorney-at-Law Kim Kyte-Thomas are representing the DPP. In his judgment dated December 02, 2020, Justice Singh upheld the submissions proffered by the DPP, and dismissed the lawsuit. In doing so, the judge ordered Magistrate Moore to pay $200,000 in court costs to the DPP by today.
Moore is asking the Full Court to set aside the entire decision of Justice Singh, and that the matter be reinstated in the High Court to take its normal course in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules 2016. The Magistrate contends that the judge made several errors in law in arriving at his decision.
Magistrate Moore has been a sitting Magistrate for more than nine years. He has been assigned to Georgetown, Berbice, East Demerara, and Corentyne Magisterial districts. Apart from that, he was admitted to practise law in the courts of Guyana, Trinidad, and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and the British Virgin Islands.
