The new Financial Services Commission Appeals Tribunal has refused the Financial Services Commission’s request to suspend an appeal by the troubled Equity Insurance Company Limited, in the appeal body’s first ruling since its appointment on February 20.
The ruling was handed down on Thursday by the tribunal chair, retired High Court judge Christopher Blackman, during a case management conference on the appeal.
Attorney for the commission, Amanda Best, had asked the tribunal to stay the appeal proceedings pending the determination of a separate application before the High Court for the winding‑up of the insurance company. That High Court case, which came up for hearing on Wednesday, was adjourned until March 25.
But Equity’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Larry Smith, objected to the FSC’s request for a temporary halt to the appeal proceedings, describing the application to the tribunal as high‑handed.
“High‑handed because having issued the revocation, with the knowledge that there is nothing in place for Equity to have an effective appeal although the legislation provided for it,” Smith said. “So, since December and February 20, Equity had no effective appeal or could not have advanced the appeal.”
Smith argued that the appeal tribunal – which would have facilitated the insurer’s appeal – was not in place between December last year, when the licence was revoked, and 20 February this year, when the tribunal was appointed.
“Here comes the FSC, having stepped into the affairs of Equity, having made the decisions it did, having issued notice of revocation; not having in place the mechanism which the legislation provided for Equity to advance the appeal … and now they come, having not raised it yesterday before the Honourable Dr Justice Wells, they come this morning and make the application for a stay, citing no legal basis for the application.”
Having heard both sides, Justice Blackman – after conferring with his commissioners – threw out the FSC’s application for a stay of the appeal proceedings.
“We declined it for reasons that FSC should have gotten that stay order from the High Court, as they had notice when they went before the High Court before coming here today. So, if they wanted me to stop, they should have asked the High Court,” he said.
“If the High Court had issued an order, so be it. But don’t pass up the opportunity to go to the higher court, and then come back to me. No sir. You went up there. Ask up there. Don’t ask me.”
This case management conference was convened to provide guidelines and structure for the benefit of the parties in the appeal by Equity.
Those guidelines and the procedural framework were settled during the sitting, in which the FSC has until March 26 to respond to an affidavit filed by Equity’s Managing Director, Karis Pounder, setting out the company’s case.
Equity will then have until April 14 to reply to anything the commission submits.
The tribunal will sit again on April 30 from 10 a.m., to review the proceedings thus far and determine the way forward, with a possible date to hear the substantive appeal between late May and early June.
The other members of the tribunal are lawyer Nigel Bennett and Connie Smith, a chartered governance professional, and the current chair of Business Barbados.
The tribunal, whose initial term of office is two years, met in the arbitration room of the Henry Forde and David Simmons Legal and Judicial Complex on Coleridge Street, The City.
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