Brady wants commission matter thrown out of court
Published:Friday | July 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Lawyers representing attorney-at-law Harold Brady are seeking to have the case brought against him for breaching the Commissions of Enquiry Act thrown out.
Brady figured highly in the hiring of US lobby firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party at the height of the Christopher 'Dudus' Coke extradition saga.
He was summoned to court because he refused to testify at the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry.
Private summons
When the trial started yesterday in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, Brady's lawyers, George Soutar and Georgia Gibson-Henlin, took a preliminary point that the case should be dismissed.
The lawyers argued that the summons which the prosecution used to bring a charge against their client was a private summons and did not have the judicial stamp.
They said the summons was invalid because it did not comply with the Justice of the Peace (Jurisdiction) Act and the Stamp Duty Act. They said a $5 judicial stamp should have been placed on the summons. They also argued that based on the absence of the stamp, Resident Magistrate Georgianna Fraser did not have the jurisdiction to try the case.
In response, attorney-at-law Garth McBean, who has a fiat from the director of public prosecutions to prosecute the case, said the absence of the stamp was not fatal. He said because Brady appeared in court after he was served with the summons, then the absence of the stamp could not invalidate the trial.
Fraser commented that the points raised were "weighty legal issues" and asked the lawyers to make written submissions before Brady returns to court on September 7.