YESTERDAY'S RULING in favour of the Junior Doctors and their Central Executive was the fourth time within a year that the Chief Justice was being overruled.
He was overruled twice this month in connection with the Junior Doctors' dispute.
In August last year, by a majority decision, the Judicial Review Court ruled that the Chief Justice did not have the legal authority to alter the hours of the sittings of the courts. The Chief Justice had issued directives that as of July 5, 1999 the courts would start sitting at 9 a.m. instead of the usual 10 a.m. Representatives of the Jamaican Bar Association had met with him asking him to reconsider his decision because it was the Rules Committee which had the authority to change the hours. They suggested measures to improve the justice system rather than alter the hours of court but the Chief Justice dismissed the idea, saying he would welcome a challenge in court.
The Bar Association challenged the matter in court and won. The case was not appealed.
On November 20, 1999, the Court of Appeal threw out a ruling by the Chief Justice that Kingston businessman Donald Panton and his company , Dojap Investments Ltd., should pay Financial Institutions Services (FIS) the US$1 million the FIS had paid to American businessman James Eroncig. The money was paid to Eroncig after the collapse of the Blaise financial institutions.
The Court of Appeal held that the dispute about whether they should pay the money should go for speedy trial in the Supreme Court. Eroncig's companies had injected the money into Blaise Trust Co. and Merchant Bank to strengthen its balance sheet.
