By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE ST. Kitts (Saturday 14th July 2018)– The next time lawyers representing opposition leader Dr. Denzil Douglas and Cuthbert ‘Big Chief’ Mills meet at the high court that session would involve money talk on the topic of whether or not Mills should pay costs to Dr. Douglas concerning that Dominica diplomatic passport matter which has been thrown out.

Yesterday afternoon (Friday ), presiding judge Justice Trevor Ward ruled that Mills cannot bring such an application when the Attorney General Vincent ‘Juicy’ Byron Jr. has done so already.

According to the judge, for Mills to do so one month after the Attorney General “is an abuse of the process.”

The issue of cost has been reserved and both parties were expected to make submissions on whether or not Mills should pay Dr. Douglas costs and how much he should pay no later than Thursday 19 July.

That deadline was suggested to the judge by Angela Sookoo-Bobb of Dr. Douglas’ legal team and a representative of Mills’ legal team, said to be from Canada, agreed to such saying to the judge “yes that would work.”

This media house understands that the costs attached in relation to this matter are expected to cover wasting the court’s time as well as that of Dr. Douglas’ legal team.
Mills, a registered voter of Constituency Six- hailing from the Newton Ground community- sought to challenge the qualification of Dr. Douglas, the parliamentary representative based on what he (Mills) had seen on social media postings, particularly Facebook as well as a passport photograph published in the Observer newspaper.

Speaking to reporters immediately following that judgement, Sookoo-Bobb highlighted: “Last Friday Dr. Douglas’ legal team argued its formal application to have Mr. Mills claim struck out as an abusive process of the court on the basis that section 36 (4) which allows for a challenge to a member’s qualification to remain in the house of representatives on the basis that the constitution did not allow a voter to file a second challenge once the Attorney General has instituted a similar type to claim. His lordship after hearing our arguments on Friday reserved his decision for today and after reading out what we consider to be a well-deliberated and considered judgement, his lordship agreed with Dr. Douglas’ legal team that Mr. Mills’ claim amounts to an abusive process of the court having been filed one month after the Attorney General’s claims and under the constitution it does not allow him to bring a second claim or to in any intervene into the Attorney General’s claim.”

She added: “His lordship also pointed out that based on the same [release] were asked for and at least three of the same witnesses were submitted by Mr. Mills, his claim was not of public interest but considered to be an abuse of the process.”

Dr. Douglas’ legal team had labelled Mills’ claim “a political nuisance”.

Deputy Leader of the opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Marcella Liburd, a lawyer, commented on the last Friday’s court matter while appearing on the weekly Party-sponsored ‘Issues’ programme on FreedomFM on Wednesday this week (18th July).

She cited the abuse of court process as “the strongest condemnation of any court matter you could find. Sometimes judges think you might have a point here or there but you still lose the case [but] here, no point at all. What the court is saying by saying it is an abuse of the court process [is that] this case has not call here at all.”

Liburd is of the view that Mills was used for political reasons.

“They have used Cuthbert Mills to try to get at Dr. Douglas. It wasn’t satisfying enough that they had one case against Dr. Douglas already filed by the Attorney General in the matter. They think that two would make it better and so they used Cuthbert Mills to file a case.”

She has also pointed a finger at the illegal manner in which Mills has been able to access Dr. Douglas’ private information- which falls in the custody of the supervisor of elections- without a court order so as “to start a court case for politics.”