Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Dehring Bunting and Golding's managers are seeking guidance from the Supreme Court to avoid a suit from a surviving joint account holder, Rose Ann Sirjue, who is challenging a previous court ruling to
transfer the funds to the Administrator General.
Two joint accounts at DB&G Unit Trust Managers Limited, totalling just under $6 million, have been the subject of a dispute between the Administrator General and the surviving holder of the accounts, for five years.
Threats of a lawsuit and fears of being in contempt of court has forced DBGUTML to bring an application in the Supreme Court asking for legal guidance.
According to court documents, the surviving account holder, Rose Ann Sirjue, threatened to sue the financial institution if the monies in the DB&G Money Market Fund are paid over to the AG.
The court had ruled in 2002 that DB&G should transfer the funds to the AG.
The money which is at the centre of the controversy is a $5,916,000.75 award by the Riot Compensation Authority to Adlin Beverly Sirjue for damage caused by rioters to premises at 98 Molynes Road, St. Andrew.
On March 28, 2000, $5.2 million was invested in the fund in the joint names of Adlin Sirjue and her daughter Rose Ann. Another $700,000 was invested on March 30, 2000.
Adlin Sirjue subsequently passed away in April 2000.
The Molynes Road property on which the riot award was made belonged to businessman Edlan Sirjue, Adlin's husband, who was fatally shot by gunmen on October 3, 1983.
The couple had six children, including Rose Ann.
The businessman died intestate. The AG took charge of the estate because one of the children was a minor at the time of his death.
After rioters broke into the building and looted equipment and goods in April 1999, Adlin brought a claim under the Riot Compensation Act.
The application came up for hearing on July 28 before Justice Wesley James for directions to be given in regards to the moneys, but the application was put off for Mr. Justice Daye who made the order in April 2002 to hear the application in October.
ruling being appealed
Rose Ann Sirjue is appealing Justice James' ruling on the grounds that he erred because Justice Daye's ruling is being appealed.
"I am relying on the law which clearly states, that the proceeds of bank accounts which are joint are automatically passed onto the survivor on the death of one of the joint owners," Miss Sirjue said
last week.
She says she is suffering severe financial hardships and distress because she cannot withdraw her money. She was accepted at a law school in the United Kingdom to pursue her dream of being a lawyer, but she says she has no money to do so because of the dispute.
According to Miss Sirjue she had lent her mother money for legal fees to pursue the claim before the Riot Compensation Authority and her mother had repaid her by means of a cheque for $700,000 which she subsequently used to purchase the units.
She is contending that the $5.9 million awarded to her mother should not form part of the estate funds because the claim was not for damage to the building but for loss of machines, equipment and goods, which, she said, all belonged to her mother.
