Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
DONOVAN Crawford, former head of the Century financial entities yesterday got an order from the Supreme Court releasing US$15,000 which he has in a bank account in Jamaica.
Crawford whose assets have been frozen by a Supreme Court order, applied for the injunction to be varied so he could get the money to assist in paying his legal fees as well as a portion of the $7.6 million owing to the law firm Myers Fletcher and Gordon.
Attorney-at-law Oswald James who is representing Crawford made the application in chambers. Mrs. Justice Carol Beswick after hearing legal arguments, granted the application.
Crawford is appealing to the United Kingdom Privy Council seeking to set aside the $2 billion judgment which the Financial Institutions Services (FIS) obtained against him and his companies.
Last month the Court of Appeal set aside the conditional leave it had granted for Crawford to go to the Privy Council because he did not pay the legal fees to Myers Fletcher and Gordon.
Crawford is going by way of special leave to the Privy Council. The hearing is set for January 13.
An appellant can apply to the Court of Appeal for leave to go to the United Kingdom Privy Council or go directly by way of special leave to the Privy Council.
After Crawford was granted conditional leave to go to the Privy Council, FIS' lawyers obtained an order from Court of Appeal Judge Henederson Downer which stated that if Crawford did not pay the law firm's legal fees amounting to $7.6 million then FIS' lawyer could apply for an order to bar him from getting final leave to go to the Privy Council.
Mr. Justice Downer ruled in chambers in February this year, that Crawford should pay the legal fees within 60 days failing which FIS' lawyers could apply to the Court of Appeal to bar him from getting final leave. Crawford appealed the ruling and the Court of Appeal upheld Mr. Justice Downer's ruling.
Last year, the Court of Appeal upheld a Supreme Court ruling that Crawford and his companies must pay FIS nearly $2 billion owing to it as a result of loan transactions from the now defunct Century financial entities to Crawford and his companies.
