ECSC grants former DBS manager leave to appeal to the CCJ re the case of a wrongful dismissal decision

Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) has granted former Dominica Broadcasting Station (DBS) Manager Mariette Warrington leave, to appeal its judgement, at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Warrington had sued DBS for wrongful dismissal. Justice Brian Cottle dismissed the claim saying “it follows that the claimant had no contract of employment and thus no issue of breach of contract arises”.
 
Justice Cottle ruled that “The defendants filed a counterclaim for certain funds which were received by the claimant as staff advances and payment on her behalf of certain expenses related to her further education. The claimant admits these advances and payments in the sum of $35,963.75 and $27,336.00 respectively. The defendants at the trial abandoned the counterclaim for any amount in excess of what the claimant admits. Judgment was therefore given to the defendants on the counterclaim for $61,299.75 together with prescribed costs on this sum”.
 
The decision was challenged in the Court of Appeal but was dismissed, and the High Court’s decision upheld on September 15, 2015 by Justices of the Appeals Court Davidson Baptist, Mario Michel and Gertel Thom. During an application hearing at the court’s sitting in Dominica on Monday July 4, 2016, attorney Cara Shillingford, who represented Warrington, presented grounds for seeking permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision at the CCJ.
 
Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal Janice M. Pereira stated that it was the order of the court to grant leave to the applicant, “pursuant to Section 1061A of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica, to appeal to the CCJ, the decision of the Court of Appeal on September 15, 2015”.
 
Shillingford had also hoped to apply for a stay of the judgement where her client was ordered to pay the respondent, DBS. However Chief Justice Pereira stated that the application for stay is refused “there being no appeal from the judgement on the counter claim, and the sum awarded thereon”.
 
This is the first case from Dominica to be appealed in the CCJ, which became Dominica’s final court of appeal, on Friday March 6, 2015. The Privy Council was Dominica’s final court of appeal prior to that date.