Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
LAWYERS REPRESENTING Olint Corporation Ltd. are going to the Court of Appeal to challenge a Supreme Court ruling refusing to grant an order for the Financial Services Commission to return documents which were seized earlier this month.
The company had first applied to the court days after the seizure for the return of the documents but was unsuccessful.
The company returned to court earlier this month and contended that the Justice of the Peace who issued the warrant was an employee of the Revenue Protection Division. The lawyers argued that the investigation against Olint was being carried out by the financial investigation department which was a division of FSC while RPD was a department of FIS. They said the Justice of the Peace who issued the warrant should not have been so closely connected to the investigative process.
Attorneys-at-law Nicole Foster- Pusey and Simone Mayhew took a preliminary point that what Olint was complaining about was an administrative issue and that could only be done by judicial review.
Attorneys-at-law Huntley Watson, Hugh Thompson and Christopher Dunkley who are representing Olint said the court had residual power to continue a matter as if it originated by an application for judicial review.
Mr. Justice Wesley James upheld the preliminary point taken by the government lawyers. The judge granted Olint leave to appeal his ruling. The lawyers said this week that Olint was now in the process of pursuing the appeal.
SEIZURE
The documents which were seized include cheque books. Olint is contending that it has not breached the Securities Act.
Following the seizure of the documents, Olint and entrepreneur David Smith filed a suit in the Supreme Court against FSC to recover damages of US$ 5 million or the Jamaican equivalent for wrongful intrusion. Olint is seeking exemplary and punitive damages occasioned by the alleged unlawful actions of the defendant. The claimants are contending that they had suffered damages, injury or loss of reputation . They are also seeking damages for trespass and tortuous interference with property. An injunction is being sought to restrain the FSC and its agents from entering into any premises which it has leased , operated or controlled purportedly in pursuit of any suspected offence under sections 7 and 9 of the Securities Act.
