The battle over the Progressive Labour Party’s membership list moved back into the Supreme Court yesterday, as the legal dispute involving leadership contender Curtis Dickinson and the PLP administration entered another critical stage.
Dickinson has taken PLP Chairman Dawn Simmons and General Secretary Patricia Basden before the court over the removal of hundreds of newly recruited members from a membership list.
According to the information presented in court, approximately 380 members were removed from roughly 1,800 people Dickinson says he signed up before the August 31 deadline.
The matter is being heard before Justice Shade Subair Williams.
King’s Counsel Delroy Duncan is representing Curtis Dickinson, while Mark Pettingill is representing the Progressive Labour Party administration.
During proceedings, the court was reminded of a series of previous applications and orders arising from the membership dispute.
Duncan told the court that Dickinson obtained an injunction on September 4 because of concerns that the PLP would issue its membership list on September 6 without including members who had been recruited.
The court also heard that Dickinson subsequently returned to court on September 10, alleging a breach of the order, and again on September 18 seeking verification of the membership list.
Duncan stated he asked the court to award costs associated with those proceedings, as well as costs for the broader case.
However, the judge has not yet ruled on those requests.
The focus of yesterday’s hearing was described as involving two central issues.
The first concerns verification of the membership list and whether verification can now be subjected to provisions contained in a new document dated September 20 — provisions which Dickinson’s side argues were not part of the requirements when the affected members originally signed up.
The second concerns whether the PLP can use a Special Delegates Conference to retrospectively alter or remove rights that members acquired when they joined the party before the August 31 deadline.
Duncan argued that these issues were already contained within the original claim.
However, previously the court heard opposing arguments from Pettingill that these matters were new issues that had not formed part of the original claim.
Pettingill is expected to present the PLP administration’s position in court today.
The dispute is therefore now focused on whether the party can apply subsequent rules or verification requirements to members who had already been accepted under the rules in effect when they joined, and whether a later delegates conference can alter those rights retrospectively.
No final ruling had been issued on those issues at the conclusion of yesterday’s proceedings.
A decision could come today, although it is also possible that Justice Shade Subair Williams could deliver a ruling as early as Monday.
TNN News will continue to follow the Supreme Court proceedings and will bring you the latest developments as they happen.
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