CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Wednesday July 6, 2016 – Allegations of breach of trust and misfeasance in public office have come back to haunt St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet.
Just over a year after a High Court judge threw out the claim against Chastanet, the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal has reinstated it.
It was on December 10, 2013, that several allegations were made in a claim filed by the Attorney General against Chastanet, as a former government minister, and Chairman of the Soufriere Town Council, Kenneth Cazaubon.
Chief among the allegations were that Chastanet, while a minister of Government and a candidate for the United Workers Party (UWP) requested, advised, received, permitted or acquiesced in the expenditure of the sum of EC$38,119 (US$) of public funds of the Council for the unlawful purpose of a campaign and political event for his personal and the political benefit of his political party, the UWP.
The money had been raised by the government of St. Lucia, from Taiwan, for specific community projects. It was also alleged that Chastanet knew or ought to have known or was recklessly indifferent to the fact that the conduct in question was unlawful and that as a consequence, he acted in a manner that amounted to a breach of his fiduciary duties as a minister of Government, bad faith and/or misfeasance in public office.
It was further alleged that Cazaubon, as Chairman of the Council, abdicated his authority and acted in breach of his fiduciary duties when he acted on Chastanet’s request, instruction or direction and gave instructions to pay, or caused the Council to pay, public funds for the unlawful purpose of meeting expenses of a campaign and political event.
In a judgment delivered on Monday, the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal held that High Court judge, Justice Belle, made an error in striking out the application against Chastanet without first having a substantial hearing with evidence on the merits.
“The remedy of striking out is a nuclear option and should only be utilized in cases where the pleadings are incurably bad…The learned judge went too far and made several findings of fact on matters that were not before him for determination,” the court said.
The Court of Appeal therefore sent the case back to the Supreme Court to be heard by a different judge. In a statement following the judgment, the St. Lucia Labour Party, which was in power when the claim was made against Chastanet, welcomed the ruling, saying that the case had always only been about “safeguarding public funds, the issue of good governance, the fiduciary obligation of public officers, especially ministers to treat with public funds in a proper manner and the abuse of office by public officials including ministers”