By Barbara Gayle, Staff Court ReporterHELGA STOECKERT, co-owner of the Four Seasons Hotel, who was involved in Jamaica's first palimony suit, has lost another legal battle to get a stake in the assets of her former lover, the late Paul H. Geddes, co-founder of Desnoes and Geddes.
On Tuesday the Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal against a Supreme Court ruling in August last year that the £200,000 (approximately J$14 million) in a joint bank account in the names of Stoeckert and Geddes belonged to the Geddes' estate.
Attorney-at-law Crafton Miller who is representing Stoeckert has hinted that it is possible that the matter will have to be decided by the United Kingdom Privy Council.
The money is in an account at the Royal Bank of Canada Europe Ltd., London, England, which was opened in 1983 in the names of Paul H. Geddes and Helga Stoeckert.
Stoeckert, 68, and Mr. Geddes were lovers for 32 years, when he ended the relationship in April 1991 and later that year married Margie Piper, an American who was 36 years old at the time.
In 1992 Miss Stoeckert filed a palimony suit against Mr. Geddes, contending that there was an agreement, arrangement, understanding or common intention between her and Mr. Geddes that she should have a beneficial interest in his assets. Mr. Geddes denied that there was any such intention.
The Supreme Court awarded Miss Stoeckert one-sixth of Mr. Geddes's assets. Mr. Geddes appealed and won. Miss Stoeckert took the matter to the United Kingdom Privy Council which ruled last year that she was not entitled to any of the assets. The Privy Council did not make any ruling in relation to the money in the bank account in London.
Marjie Geddes, executrix of Geddes' estate, applied to the Supreme Court for an order that the money in the London bank should go to the estate. Mrs. Justice Norma McIntosh, after hearing submissions from attorney-at-law Michele Champagnie of Myers Fletcher and Gordon, ruled in August last year that the money belonged to the estate.
Stoeckert contended on appeal that the judge erred in ruling that the question of the legal and beneficial ownership of the joint account was decided by the Court of Appeal.
Stoeckert and Geddes's estate had made claims for the money in the bank but the bank is saying that it needs a court order as to who should get the money.
The Court of Appeal comprising the Hon. Ian Forte, President of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Justice Seymour Panton and Mr. Justice Algernon Smith, in dismissing the appeal made no order as to costs. The court granted Stoeckert a stay of execution of its order until the written reasons have been handed down. The stay of execution means that the money will have to remain in the bank account until the written reasons are handed down.
Mr. Geddes, one of the creators of the world famous Red Stripe beer, died in June 1999 at age 89 leaving his widow, Marjie, as the executrix of his $600-million estate.
