Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterAN OUT-OF-COURT agreement was reached yesterday by the parties in the dispute over the election of officers last year to the Inspectors Branch Board of the Jamaica Police Federation.
The parties said they would not disclose the terms of the settlement but The Gleaner understands that steps are to be taken by the parties to prepare comprehensive written rules to be followed for the nomination and election of officers to the branch board. The next election is scheduled to take place by March 31.
Inspector Max Marshalleck and several other inspectors had filed a motion in the Supreme Court last year seeking to set aside the election of officers to the Inspectors Branch Board. They contended that they were not given an opportunity to participate in the election because nomination papers were not properly circulated.
On Wednesday, the parties tried to settle the issue but when they failed, the motion was set for hearing yesterday before Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe in the Judicial Review Court.
When the parties appeared in court yesterday their lawyers announced that Marshalleck and the other claimants were withdrawing the motion based on a settlement. Court records were endorsed that the matter was withdrawn on the terms endorsed on counsel's brief.
Attorney-at-law David Batts, who represented Marshalleck, was about to inform the court of the reasons for the withdrawal but the Chief Justice said that was not necessary.
"I am happy that the matter has ended this way," Inspector Steven Moodie, secretary of the Inspectors Branch Board said yesterday.
Acting Deputy Solicitor-General Patrick Foster, who represented Inspector K. Wade who was a respondent, said his department was pleased that "the police officers were able to resolve their differences amicably without having to resort to adjudication by the court". Inspector Wade was the returning officer for the election.
Last October, Miss Justice Ingrid Mangatal gave Inspector Marshalleck and his co-claimants leave to take the issue to the Judicial Review Court. The judge said that in her view there were serious issues to be tried and ordered that there should be an expedited hearing of the matter, adding that the group was to be represented by Inspector Marshalleck. Marshalleck and his co-claimants were not successful in their application for an injunction barring the members of the branch board from taking any further part in the conduct and operations of the branch board until the issue was decided by the court.
