Cora Richardson-Hodge 1st Claimant Navine Fleming 2nd Claimant v Attorney General of Anguilla 1st Defendant Commissioner of Police of Anguilla 2nd Defendant Joseph Andrew Arsenault 3rd Defendant [ECSC]
| Jurisdiction | Anguilla |
| Judge | BLENMAN, J |
| Judgment Date | 27 May 2011 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2011] ECSC J0527-3 |
| Date | 27 May 2011 |
| Court | High Court (Saint Christopher, Nevis And Anguilla) |
| Docket Number | CLAIM NO: AXAHCV 0007/2010 |
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
CLAIM NO: AXAHCV 0007/2010
Mr. Mark Brantley for the Claimants
Mr. Wilhelm Bourne, Attorney General with Mr. Ivor Green, Senior Crown Counsel for the Defendants
These are applications by Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Navine Fleming to stay criminal proceedings which are brought against them, together with an application for specific disclosure of certain information or documents. The applications are strenuously resisted by the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and Inspector Andrew Arsenault.
The Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police of Anguilla and Mr. Andrew Arsenault have all applied to the court for a stay of the amended Constitutional Motion that is brought by Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Navine Fleming against them. Their application is vigorously opposed by Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming, respectively.
The issues that arise for the court to resolve are as follows:
-
(a) Whether the court should grant a stay of the criminal proceedings (in the Magistrate Court);
-
(b) Whether the court should grant a stay of the Constitutional Motion;
-
(c) Whether the court should order the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and Mr. Arsenault to disclose the documents/information on which Mr. Arsenault relied in order to obtain the search warrant.
It is important to state the background in some detail.
Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Navine Fleming are two solicitors/barristers who practise in Anguilla. Mrs. Richardson-Hodge is the Principal of the law firm CR Hodge & Associates, while Ms. Fleming is the Principal of Libran Chambers. It appears as though sometime in 2009 they were retained by Mr. Joseph Brice to represent himself and Private International Trust Corporation, in which Mr. Brice was a major shareholder. Mrs. Richardson-Hodge represented Mr. Brice and Private International Trust Corporation in a number of claims together with the assistance of a senior lawyer, Mr. Michael Bruney, who practises in Anguilla but whose main practice is in the Commonwealth of Dominica. One of the matters in which Mrs. Richardson-Hodge represented Mr. Brice and the Private International Trust Corporation is in Claim No. AXAHCV2008/0102. Ms. Fleming also represented Mr. Brice and Private International Trust Corporation. Mr. Bruney had oversight of all of Mr. Brice's matters in which Ms. Fleming had general conduct and in particular Claim No. AXAHCV2009/0017, Private International Trust Corporation and Joseph Brice v Gigi Osco Bingeman.
Both Mr. Brice and Private International Trust Corporation appear to have been involved in a number of other litigations as claimants and defendants. Mr. Brice appears to have a judgment entered against him and the corporation in which he had substantial interest while others were made in his favour.
It seems that on 4th March 2009 in Claim No. AXAHCV2009/0026, YA Ltd v Joseph Brice and Private International and Caribbean Ventures in which there were allegations that Mr. Brice and the corporation with which he was associated had defrauded YA Limited of US$3,566,335.00, Justice Michel granted YA Limited a freezing order and directed that the defendants shall not in any way dispose of or deal with or diminish the value of any of their assets to the value of US$3,566,335.00.
Based on the order on the court's file, it seems that in Claim No. AXAHCV 2009/0017 it was ordered, on 4th March 2009, that the defendant would pay Mr. Brice and Private International Trust Corporation US$750,000.00 arising out of orders of court and for legal fees. It appears as though as part of the settlement discussions it was agreed that US$600,000.00 would be used to satisfy the outstanding amount owed by Mr. Brice in relation to the claims in court and for the legal fees incurred.
On 11th March 2009, Ms. Fleming filed an application on behalf of Mr. Brice to the court in Claim No. AXAHCV2009/0017, for the payment of US$600,000.00 to be paid to Joseph Brice and Private International Trust Corporation, and Justice Michel ordered the payment of US$600,000.00 out of the monies held in court at the Government Treasury for the benefit of Joseph Brice and Private International Trust Corporation to be used to settle the above debts.
On 13th March 2009, Ms. Fleming filed another application in the above Claim No. AXAHCV2009/0017, Private International Trust Corporation and Joseph Brice v Gigi Osco-Bingemanfor the payment of legal fees incurred by Joseph Brice and Private International Trust Corporation. Evidence of the several claims in which Mrs. Richardson-Hodge, Mr. Bruney and Ms. Fleming acted as counsel together with the invoices for the legal services rendered accompanied the application. On 20th March 2009, Justice Michel ordered that they be paid fees totaling US$147,083.19. Indeed, in AXAHCV2009/0017, Private International Trust Corporation and Joseph Brice v Gigi Osco-Bingeman (As Personal Representative of the Estate of Martin Crowley) and Vadim Fridman and Pendragon International Limited, Justice Michel ordered on 20th March 2009: "That the sum of One Hundred and Forty-Seven Thousand Eighty Three Dollars and Nineteen Cents United States Currency(US$147, 083.19) held in the court for the benefit of Joseph Brice and Private International Trust Corporation to the Order of the court made on 4th March 2009 in the matter of AXAHCV2009/0017, Private International Trust and Joseph Brice v Gigi Osco-Bingeman, Vadim Fridman and Pendragon International Limited be transferred to Libran Chambers with respect to the satisfaction of legal fees incurred by the Claimants/Applicants in prosecuting and defending the various actions before the court."
Ms. Fleming attended the Registry of the High Court and obtained a copy of the court's order. She was then able to collect a cheque from the Treasury Department, Government of Anguilla, for US$147,083.19 on 28th March 2009, and allegedly disbursed the sums as legal fees to herself, Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Mr. Bruney.
Prior to this, it seems that since 2008 members of the Financial Investigation Unit of the Royal Anguilla Police Force had been investigating allegations made by numerous persons of criminal wrongdoing allegedly involving Mr. Joseph Brice and Private International Trust Corporation. It appears that as a result of allegations several criminal charges were eventually laid against Mr. Joseph Brice.
Mr. Arsenault says that, subsequent to this, he received certain confidential information which allegedly related to Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming. Mr. Arsenault set about investigating the allegations and in pursuance of this he did several things, most of which are of no relevance to the applications at bar.
On the 18th of January 2010, Mr. Arsenault obtained two search warrants from the Rev. Brooks, who is a Justice of Peace, in order to search the offices of CR Hodge and Associates and Libran Chambers, respectively, in order to obtain billing records in relation to Mr. Brice and the relevant companies. The warrant stated that evidence on oath was given by Mr. Joseph Andrew Arsenault, that there was reasonable cause to believe that certain property which may be used as evidence in the prosecution of the suspected offence of false accounting contrary to section 260 (1) of the Criminal Code.
The search warrants were executed on the law offices of Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and that of Ms. Fleming. Certain documents were seized from the law practices of both Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and that of Ms. Fleming.
Mr. Arsenault says that his reasonable suspicions were that Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming had inflated their legal fees in their application to the court in which they had obtained the Order from Justice Michel for the payment of the fees in an attempt to assist Mr. Brice who allegedly was now in difficult financial circumstances. On the face of his affidavit, Mr. Arsenault says that he received certain information in relation to alleged overbilling by Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming, applied and obtained a warrant to search the business premises of Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming. He says that he had suspicions that both of the law firms had information or property which may be used in evidence in the prosecution of offences of false accounting against their respective Principals.
On 12th February 2010, Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming filed a Constitutional Motion which was later amended, in which they contend that there was no basis for the granting or execution of the search warrants; that the search warrants were unlawful and invalid; and that the defendants contravened section 8 of the Anguilla Constitution Order 1982. They also sought declarations against the defendants which include:
-
(a) That the search warrant dated 18th January 2010 were not validly issued;
-
(b) That the search warrant were not validly executed;
-
(c) That the defendants violated the constitutional rights provided to them by virtue of section 8 of the Anguilla Constitution Order 1982.
There were a number of intervening events which are not material to the applications before the court. Of significance, however, is the fact that the defendants caused affidavits to be filed in opposition to Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming's Motion. During the pendency of the Constitutional Motion, the Royal Anguilla Police Force caused criminal summonses to be filed against Mrs. Richardson-Hodge and Ms. Fleming which ordered them to appear before the Magistrate's Court. The summonses allege, in effect, that they...
To continue reading
Request your trial