Caribbean Court of Justice awards pension benefits to dismissed Police Inspector

Fri Mar 15, 2013

by Kerry-Ann Tracey, Norman Manley Law School

Mr Ramnarine Somrah joined the Guyana Police Force as a constable in 1965 and was appointed Inspector of Police in 1986. The Police Service Commission dismissed him from the Force in 1989 for being absent from duty. He took the matter to court and the dismissal order was quashed by the court, but no order was made for his reinstatement to the Police Force. Following this decision, he brought another action that he be reinstated to the Force, but this was dismissed. Not daunted by this decision, he brought a third action for constitutional redress.{{more}} In this action, the court ruled that he was entitled to salary, pension and gratuity payments. The Police Service Commission appealed this decision to the Guyana Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal granted the Commission’s appeal and ordered that Mr Somrah be paid pension benefits calculated on the basis of 14 years of service. It is this decision that sparked Mr Somrah’s application for special leave to appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Mr Somrah filed his application at the CCJ past the deadline for doing so. His lawyer therefore had to apply for an extension of time. Although his reasons for seeking an extension of time were rejected by the CCJ, the application did not fail because the case revealed that the Court of Appeal made a mathematical error in calculating his pensionable years. To guard against this miscarriage of justice, the CCJ granted special leave.

Given that there was an error in the pension calculations, the CCJ decided that, in the circumstances, it was just to grant the appeal, because of the Court of Appeal’s error. However, the CCJ ruled that Mr Somrah “did not have an arguable case” regarding his claim that he was wrongfully or unfairly dismissed by the Police Service Commission. The CCJ stated that Mr Somrah should have raised all his constitutional challenges in his second lawsuit rather than seek to bring a third lawsuit raising constitutional issues concerning the same dismissal.

The Court ruled that the former Inspector should receive pension and other superannuation benefits calculated on the basis of 24 years of service. Costs of $200,000.00 were ordered to be paid by the Police Service Commission and the Attorney General.

This summary is intended to assist the Caribbean public in learning more about the work of the CCJ. It is not a formal document of the Court. The judgment of the Court is the only authoritative document and may be found at http://chooseavirb.com/ccj/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/al5_2008.pdf.