Attorney General Anand Ramlogan is seeking to have Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley be declared bankrupt by the courts for not paying him sums owed from a court order.
Last week, Ramlogan initiated court proceedings against Rowley to recover the $12,000 owed to him from a court order made by Justice Andre des Vignes on January 14.
Ramlogan’s lawyer, Rachael Jaggernauth, had written to Rowley’s attorney, Senator Faris Al-Rawi on four occasions in a bid to have the sum settled since the order.
In March 2012, Ramlogan had issued a pre-action protocol letter to Rowley objecting to a statement he made that the AG had given over 50 per cent of the State’s legal briefs to his former law firm.
Ramlogan denied the allegation and countered that he had not given a single State brief to his law firm.
Ramlogan contends that Rowley has failed to pay the judgment debt for approximately five months.
The AG noted the Constitution disqualifies any citizen from serving in Parliament if he is bankrupt and if Rowley is declared bankrupt he would be barred by the Constitution from serving as an MP and consequently as Leader of the Opposition.
The AG’s legal move, which was filed last Friday, comes two days before the House of Representatives debates a Rowley-initiated motion of no confidence against the Government.
The AG has had three defamation lawsuits against the Opposition Leader.
Ramlogan challenged statements made by Rowley, which allegedly implied that there was some collusion between the AG and the High Court on the judicial review case based on statements filed by businessmen Steve Ferguson and Ish Galbaransingh seeking to quash Ramlogan’s decision to extradite them to face trial in the United States.
In April Justice Harris ordered Rowley to pay Ramlogan legal costs but Rowley successfully appealed this Order and was given a reprieve on two-thirds of those costs which are yet to be assessed.
The Opposition Leader also has to defend a third set of defamation proceedings brought by the Attorney General based on his statements that Ramlogan had abused his powers as the Attorney General to seek private banking information details about citizens. That claim was filed on February 18 but no defence has been filed to date.
A three-month extension was granted to Rowley to file his defence.
Source: trinidadexpress
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