By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter 
Crawford
IN AN unusual move, a Court of Appeal Judge yesterday granted an order to lawyers representing the government-owned Financial Institutions Services Ltd (FIS), barring Donovan Crawford, former head of the Century financial entities, from taking steps to pursue his appeal to the UK Privy Council until he has paid $7.6 million owing in legal costs to FIS's lawyers.
Crawford and his companies are appealing against a Court of Appeal ruling which upheld a Supreme Court judgment that Crawford and his companies must pay $2 billion to FIS.
The law firm Myers Fletcher and Gordon represented FIS in the suits it had brought in the Supreme Court against Crawford, his companies and some former executives of the Century Financial entities. The law firm also represented FIS when Crawford appealed to the Court of Appeal.
When the summons came for hearing yesterday before Mr. Justice Henderson Downer in chambers, attorney-at-law Sandra Minott-Phillips asked the judge to grant the order, barring Crawford from going ahead with his appeal until the agreed legal costs were paid.
Attorney-at-law Gillian Mullings, of the law firm Patrick Bailey and Co. who represented Crawford and his companies, had opposed the application.
Mr. Justice Downer granted the application which bars Crawford from taking any further legal proceedings in the case until the costs have been paid.
The Court of Appeal, in handing down judgment in July last year, said Crawford indulged in unwise banking practice and apparently deliberately put the bank's funds at risk in order to assist companies, in all of which he had direct personal interest.
The court ordered that several properties owned by Crawford and his companies must be transferred to FIS. It was also ordered that the transfers should await the outcome of the Privy Council's ruling.
However, Mr. Justice Downer ruled yesterday that FIS was at liberty to apply to the Court of Appeal after 30 days from February 12 for the variation or discharge of the partial stay of execution (of the $2 billion judgment debt in relation to the properties) ordered by the court on October 8, 2001 in the event that the $7.6 million in legal costs are then unpaid.
FIS has since recovered a portion of the $2 billion judgment from assets owned by the companies.
After the Minister of Finance closed the bank in July 1996, FIS sued Crawford, his companies, Balmain Brown and Valton Caple Williams, executive officers of the bank to recover damages arising from the financial institutions' losses.
Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe heard the case and ruled they were all liable to pay FIS when he handed down judgment in the Supreme Court against Crawford, his companies and some former executives of Century. They appealed and lost.
Crawford and his companies were granted conditional leave in October last year to take the case to the United Kingdom Privy Council. They will have to return to the Court of Appeal for final leave to appeal but cannot do so now until the $7.6 million has been paid.
