Legal showdown looms after JAS holds AGM despite injunction

  

A legal showdown is looming over the decision of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) to host its annual general meeting despite an injunction to prevent its occurrence.

 

The Supreme Court imposed an injunction following an application from JAS member Lawrence Robertson who said the statute governing the JAS was being flouted in the holding of the AGM.

 

Mr. Robertson called for the finances of the JAS to be audited before the AGM can be held.

 

The court ruled that the interim injunction granted in July last year shall remain in place until final determination of the substantive claim, with the first hearing set for September 19 this year.

 

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman has said he will be going back to the court to address the breach. 

 

"I am now in the process of preparing contempt proceedings against [Agriculture] Minister Floyd Green for aiding and abetting the breach of an injunction, and the consequences could be imprisonment. It is scandalous and the minister is operating as if he is not concerned about the rule of law, as if the rule of law does not apply to him, that he's above the law," he asserted. 

 

 

JAS President Lenworth Fulton was at pains to point out that Wednesday's AGM was illegitimate and no decision taken will be able to withstand legal scrutiny.

 

Mr. Fulton said he along with a majority of the board members abided by the injunction despite a letter from the Agriculture Minister encouraging the holding of the AGM. 

 

"It is the minister that went over my head and the CEO head and write (sic) a letter to my staff that they should disregard the instruction given by me and my CEO that they should not hold an AGM today on two grounds - one that there is an injunction, and two, it is insensitive to be frolicking and eating and drinking and playing music at this time when farmers are in tatters. So we said it is not the wisest way to spend millions of dollars," he explained. 

 

Mr. Fulton maintained that the AGM is illegal and that Minister Green "should have known better" since "any decision taken there will be null and void". 

 

The JAS president pointed out that a forensic audit is being requested to determine the whereabouts of nearly $75 million.