Bacon's Attempt to "Court Shop" a Defamation Case against Peter Nygård - Thwarted!
New York Judge Cynthia Kern did not agree with Louis Bacon’s attempt to denigrate the Bahamas Court system when she ruled in favour of Peter Nygård that the Courts of The Bahamas is the appropriate place where Bacon’s defamation law suit against Nygård should be adjudicated.
The international media which has been tracking this case and the feud between the two men, quickly pounced on the story seconds after Judge Kern’s ruling.
By the time Bacon’s New York law suit was started in 2015, he had already commenced in The Bahamas several other litigations against Bahamians, who are described as Nygård’s allies and friends.
A local Attorney in The Bahamas said that the New York ruling demonstrates that Judge shopping and legal forum shopping to litigate is frowned on by responsible courts and Judges, worldwide.
Just this past week, Bahamian Attorney Greg Moss and Member of Parliament, from the floor of Parliament, accused Bacon’s Save the Bays and its chief mouth-piece, Fred Smith QC, of judge shopping. This claim was made in relation to the widely critical judgment of Guyanese Justice Indra Charles of the Bahamas Supreme Court.
In that judgment, Justice Charles amazingly ruled that she had jurisdiction over the Parliament of The Bahamas and could essentially override the powers of the Speaker of the House to suspend the age-old privilege enjoyed by Members of Parliament in relation to what they could say and disclose to the people’s parliament. Member of Parliament of Jerome Fitzgerald was cited as having breached Bacon’s privacy rights when he tabled emails which he claims discloses what we say is a criminal conspiracy on the part of Bacon’s Save The Bays and its key operatives. What is even more disturbingly hypocritical about this is that Bacon’s Save The Bays have been strongly advocating for the passage of a Freedom of Information Act in The Bahamas, but not in relation to their information which shows criminal activity.
Matters are made worse and leaves inquiring minds to discover that all of Bacon’s local court actions have unbelievably been placed before Justice Charles although the existing court procedure does not favour such a result as it could give the impression to an ordinary person that justice is not being served.
Some say that in the face of Bacon being implicated by two self-proclaimed murderers, Wisler “Bobo” Davilma and Livingston “Toogie” Bullard, who claim to have been hired by Bacon to fabricate evidence before the Courts against Nygård and his Attorney, Keod Smith, Justice Charles’ Judgment was so reckless that it has caused a constitutional conundrum, not only for The Bahamas, but potentially for many other Commonwealth countries who share similar constitutions to ours and the British common law. Yet, some say that Justice Charles’ Judgment has caused Bacon’s actions to be tantamount to treason as it reeks of a coup d'état.
Attorneys for Nygård and Keod Smith says that if Bacon files his New York suit in the courts in The Bahamas where the majority of the non-party witnesses reside, Nygård and the Government of The Bahamas whose reputation is also being attacked by Bacon, would be able to more easily and cost effectively, attend court and give evidence showing the world that Bacon’s action is without merit and substance, and amounts to an abuse of the process of the court.
From how Bacon had juxtapose his cases, it is now clear that he can no longer rely on competing jurisdictions in order to sneak and make a mockery of the judicial system in The Bahamas through the processes that he and his Save The Bays has been doing over the last few years.
Although grateful for what Judge Kern has done, Re-negotiate.Org is saddened by the fact that it has taken a New York Judge to protect the legal jurisdiction of The Bahamas from Bacon’s intended abuse.
We are forever hopeful that our local judges would ensure that the rule of law of The Bahamas prevails, even when billionaires like Bacon throws money around as he claims to seek justice before our Court. They must send a clear message to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment