The decision of retired High Court Justice Brassington Reynolds: that Maurice Arjoon was wrongfully dismissed from his role as Chief Executive Officer of the New Building Society (NBS), and that he was entitled to recoup all benefits lost as a result of that decision, has been upheld by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in an order dated October 23, 2023.
The country’s highest court also overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling of September 16, 2022: which stated that Arjoon was not eligible for pension payments to the tune of $59,033,281.
Arjoon’s entitlement to severance compensation remains unresolved, as the regional court has reserved its decision on the issue. It has, however, ordered the NBS to pay Arjoon $1,602,459, which represents his leave pay and passage assistance for the years 2006 and 2007.
The NBS, Trust Company (Guyana) Ltd., Executor of the estate of Ahmad Khan, Seepaul Narine, and Nizam Mohamed (the respondents) have also been ordered to pay standard costs to Arjoon.
In a letter to the NBS and Trust Company (Guyana) Limited, Arjoon’s legal team, headed by Senior Counsel Edward Luckhoo, has since demanded that the money be paid immediately, and has threatened to levy on the assets of the NBS.
They have, in the letter, asked that the money be deposited into their client’s bank account. Arjoon’s lawyers have informed the bank that he is willing to visit NBS to execute any documents necessary to facilitate the payment of his pension into his bank account.
The NBS has been reminded by Luckhoo that the CCJ is Guyana’s final court, and that failing to pay Ajoon’s pension and other amounts on time would be considered willful defiance of the court’s orders.
After a lengthy trial, Arjoon was, in July 2017, awarded $79,282,801 in outstanding payments and benefits by now-retired High Court Judge Brassington Reynolds, some six years after he had filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against his former employer, arguing that he was wrongfully dismissed and that the institution had withheld pension and other benefits that were lawfully due to him.
After a successful levy on the assets of the NBS to satisfy the judgement, Arjoon was able to clear a cheque for $59,033,281, representing pension payments. This sum was part of the more than $79 million awarded by Justice Reynolds; the balance of $20,249,801 which was awarded to him as severance was, however, stayed by Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud. However, Arjoon found himself defending his lawsuit after NBS moved to the Court of Appeal to quash Justice Reynolds’s decision.
In the end, the Court of Appeal allowed the NBS appeal only on the issue of Arjoon’s pension entitlement, and dismissed all of its other grounds of appeal. As a result, his pension benefits were significantly reduced, from $59,033,281 to $18,817,432 — which was subjected to any indebtedness to NBS.
In computing the new sum, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, explained that the court considered the relevant provisions of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act. The NBS was ordered to pay Arjoon $800,000 in court costs.
Later, Arjoon filed an appeal with the CCJ, challenging the Court of Appeal’s ruling. Arjoon’s appeal and the financial institution’s cross-appeal were heard by CCJ President Adrian Saunders and CCJ Judges Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Denys Barrow, Andrew Burgess, and Peter Jamadar on October 10. The appeal was allowed and the cross-appeal was dismissed.
Senior Counsel Stephen Fraser represented NBS in the CCJ.
Arjoon was fired from his position in connection with a magistrate’s court matter wherein he and the mortgage lending institution’s former Operations and Assistant Mortgage Managers were accused of conspiracy to defraud the NBS of nearly $70 million.
The matter was eventually dismissed, and Arjoon and the others took the financial institution to court in 2011. The NBS had contended that an unauthorised withdrawal of nearly $70 million had been made from an account that its client Bibi Shamina Khan held.
The NBS’s issue with the withdrawal was that it was made through a Power of Attorney, and the company had implicated Arjoon for misconduct.
An investigation had claimed that the fraud was committed in 2006, and the three men were all fired the next year, after it had allegedly been determined that they were at fault for dereliction of duty, negligence, and/or serious/gross misconduct.
However, Justice Reynolds, in relying on case law, found that NBS did not provide substantial evidence to prove that Arjoon committed gross or serious misconduct which warranted his dismissal. As such, the Judge held that it was unfair for Arjoon to be dismissed when the bank had no systems in place to prove that he was guilty of any wrongdoing.
According to the Judge, during the trial, NBS, inter alia, admitted that it had poor systemic procedures of adequate checks and balances for detecting gross or serious misconduct such as the allegations levelled against Arjoon, and those systems were only put in place after the charges.
Justice Reynolds noted that a “Peter pay for Paul and Paul pay for all” approach could not be applied when making such decisions.
Late Ombudsman Justice Winston Moore had found that Arjoon and the NBS’s former managers had suffered grave injustice, as there was insufficient evidence to suggest that they were guilty, and moreso to successfully prosecute them.
