Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
COFFEE FARMERS scored a major victory yesterday when the Supreme Court directed that the liquidator of Dyoll Insurance Company must pay them the US$3 million (J$195 million) which insurers had paid directly for damage caused by Hurricane Ivan.
The directive was given by Mr. Justice Bryan Sykes.
The joint liquidators had claimed that the money should be put into the common pool to be paid to all Dyoll creditors.
Safe Haven and Coffee Trustees, which represents the farmers, insisted that the money which was paid out by the re-insurers was solely for the damage caused by the hurricane in 2004.
"This is a fantastic victory for the farmers," said Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, who was in court, after the directive was handed down. Senator Grant said it was a long legal battle for the coffee farmers, but he was happy with the outcome.
"It is a fair decision, and it was what we expected," Oswald O'Meally, a member of the Coffee Trustees, said yesterday.
Chartered accountant, John Lee, who is the court appointed liquidator for Dyoll, also sought the court's intervention along with Safe Haven and Coffee Trustees.
Mr. Justice Sykes heard legal arguments in chambers and ruled yesterday that Dyoll was not the primary insurer and had only lent its name to legitimise the transactions which the parties had with other insurers.
