Port-of-Spain (Trinidad Express):
CHIEF Magistrate Sherman McNicolls has been ordered by High Court judge, Justice Peter Jamadar, to pay $92,326 after he failed in an application to have Justice Jamadar step down from hearing a judicial review matter he (McNicolls) brought against the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC).
The money represents legal costs incurred by the JLSC in responding to the application which was dismissed by Justice Jamadar on October 22, 2007.
Criminal trial
In the substantive matter, in which McNicolls challenged the JLSC's decision to lay six charges against him for refusing to be cross-examined in a criminal trial against then chief justice Satnarine Sharma in March 2007, Justice Jamadar ordered each side to bear its own costs.
"One sees that the claimant (McNicolls) succeeded on his minor application for amendments and succeeded only in a limited way on his application for disclosure," Justice Jamadar said Monday in the San Fernando High Court.
"On the substantive application, the claimant succeeded only partially. However, this partial success cannot be assessed in too quantitative a manner.
Traditional position
"Thus, while the general rule is that a successful party is entitled to his/its costs, the traditional position that a claimant is considered successful if he/it obtained any order in his/its favour (even if it represented only a small proportion of the claim) no longer enjoys the same status under the Civil Proceedings Rules 1998."
Justice Jamadar, in February, ruled that four of the proposed six charges were illegal, irrational, unfair, without legal or evidential foundation and an abuse of the JLSC's power.
McNicolls, on March 5, 2007, had turned up in court and stepped into the witness stand. But even before he uttered a word, lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson SC, announced: "Having regard to the position indicated to us by this witness, we decided to adopt a particular position and not proceed any further. We ask that the accused be discharged. We are proceeding no further."
