Former BNS boss wins major court victory

William Bill Clarke , the former Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) boss,  won a major victory on Friday in his ongoing battle with the bank when the Appeal Court, in a historic decision ruled in his favour .

The former banking executive had challenged a 10-year rule of  the Appeal Court which allows a single judge to hear appeals. The challenge was made when a a judge threw out his appeal in June last year, during his multi-million dollar battle with BNS.

Clarke was seeking to recover more than J$3 million from the bank during the battle over his much publicised settlement package dispute.

However, a single judge in the Appeal Court threw out his case after agreeing with the bank that the money was part of the package sent to arbitration in the settlement fight.    

Clarke disagreed and challenged the constitutionality of the rule .

On Friday, in a surprise decision, a five-member panel of  Appeal Court judges which heard the constitutional appeal, agreed with him and ordered that his appeal be heard by a three-member panel of judges.

This was the first time in the history of  the Appeal Court that a five-member panel sat to hear a civil appeal.

In October 2008, Clarke stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer of  BNS following a reported row with his bosses in Canada. The two parties were later locked in a J$300 million payment dispute.

Clarke and the bank eventually arrived at an agreement, but the details were never disclosed.