Court refuses leave for lecturer to go to Privy Council

The Court of Appeal has turned down an application for Dr Christopher Ogunsalu, senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies to appeal to the United Kingdom to set aside a default judgment against him for defamation.

Retired assistant commissioner of police Keith 'Trinity' Gardner had obtained a default judgment in October 2018 against Ogunsalu because he did not file his defence within the specified time.

Ogunsalu had applied for conditional leave to appeal on the basis that the matter was of great public importance. King's Counsel Ransford Braham represented him in his bid to go to Jamaica's final appellate court.

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman who has been representing Gardner since the defamation suit was filed, opposed the application for leave. Wildman argued that the applicant did not have a defence that had a real prospect of success.

Last week Monday, the Court of Appeal refused the application. Steps will now be taken for damages to be assessed in the Supreme Court in Gardner's favour.

Attorney-at-law Duke Foote who is appearing with Wildman said today that when the application was refused leave last week, the court ordered Ogunsalu to pay Gardner's legal costs.

On May 24, 2018, Gardner, who was then director of campus security at the UWI, filed a defamation claim in the Supreme Court contending that an email Ogunsalu sent to him and copied to senior employees of the university contained defamatory statements that injured his reputation.

An acknowledgement of service was filed but the defendant did not file a defence to the claim. A default judgment hearing was held in the absence of the defendant on October 26, 2018 and the court ruled that damages were to be assessed in the matter.

The defendant applied in January 2019 to have the default judgment set aside. He stated that he became aware of the default judgment on October  30, 2018.

He explained that he had misunderstood his attorneys' instructions that he had to formalise their retainer before the defence was filed on his behalf and was of the mistaken belief that one would have been filed.

Supreme Court Judge Tricia Hutchinson refused to grant the application to set aside the default judgment. 

He appealed and the Court of Appeal ruled in April 2022 that the judge's finding that he failed to supply a good explanation for not filing his defence within  time could not be faulted.

-Barbara Gayle

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