Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Frank Phipps - file

An application which was set for hearing in the Supreme Court yesterday morning was delayed for more than an hour while court staff made efforts to find the file in relation to the case.

Prominent Queen's Counsel Frank Phipps, who turned up at the courthouse after 9:00 a.m. for the hearing which was scheduled for 10 a.m., strongly criticised the system which allowed for such a situation. "It is difficult if not impossible to have justice delivered in the state of chaos that exists in the Supreme Court," Mr. Phipps remarked. He said yesterday morning he saw lawyers rummaging through some tacky papers in a box on a table outside the registry and wondered if the authorities did not hear about computers. The papers are put in the box to inform lawyers about the progress of their cases.

Justice cannot be administered

Mr. Phipps said the Canadians were in the island to look into the justice system but if they were at the courthouse yesterday morning they would throw up their hands in the air because justice cannot be administered in that situation.

After waiting for more than an hour, Mr. Phipps who is representing the applicant and Deputy Solicitor General Patrick Foster who is representing the Government left the courthouse. Mr. Phipps said when the file was found then the staff could contact him and he would return because he had other important matters to attend.

Files scattered

An attorney-at-law said yesterday that recently he went into the Supreme Court Registry and saw files scattered all over the place. "It is amazing how they are able to find find the files," he added.

The file was subsequently located and Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe heard the application which was an affidavit of urgency and reserved his ruling. The application was brought by Gareth Lewis, businessman of Golden Spring, St. Andrew. He is seeking to have telephone records unsealed so that they can be available at his extradition hearing on January 11.

Lewis and his 75-year-old blind father Jeffrey Lewis are wanted in the U.S.A. to face charges for conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S.A. Mr. Phipps said the only allegations against the men were in relation to intercepted telephone calls. He said a Supreme Court judge had sealed the telephone records and he was asking the Supreme Court to unseal them.

The men have been in custody since August last year.