Lawyer clarifies Taiwan loan dispute

The lawyer who handled the case brought by Taiwan against the Grenada government in a United States court over the non-payment of a multimillion-dollar loan is accusing Finance Minister Nizam Burke of seeking to mislead his country on the issue.

Attorney Donzell Tucker Nimrod was reacting to public comments from Burke saying Grenada lost the case by default because the then Keith Mitchell government did not put in a defence.

Nimrod, who has practised law for two decades in the US, pushed back at the assertion in a letter to Burke.

"Grenada had no affirmative defence to the lawsuit at issue because Grenada did, in fact, borrow the money from the Export Import Bank and also admitted to the fact," said the lawyer, who is also the wife of former Legal Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod.

St George's has accused Taipei of seeking to cripple the island's economy over the repayment of the EC$76-million (US$28.1 million) loans given to Grenada before it broke off diplomatic relations in 2005.

Taipei says the loans were negotiated by the former Mitchell administration between 1997 and 2000 before it suddenly broke off diplomatic relations in favour of Beijing.

"Grenada in this particular case failed or refused to file a defence. The papers were sent to the United States to the wife of one of the senior members of the government," Burke said in a radio interview in Grenada.

"She apparently did nothing with it as far as any filing of defence is concerned, and the net result was judgment was obtained in default against Grenada in respect of these loans," he said.

However, Nimrod is contending that Grenada was, in fact, represented at the hearing, and it was a summary judgment and not a default judgment that was handed down by the court.

A summary judgment removes the need for a trial because factual issues are not in dispute, while a default judgment is issued when a person fails to appear in court to answer a complaint.

"There were no factual issues to litigate, therefore, under such circumstances, the judge had no alternative but to issue a summary judgment in favour of the Export Import Bank," explained Tucker Nimrod.

"Obviously, the judge could not have issued a default judgment because Grenada appeared and answered the Export Import Bank summons and complaint," the lawyer said.