By SEAN DOUGLAS Tuesday, September 29 2009

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SHARE THE JOKE: Attorney General John Jeremie (left) and Senate President Danny Montano laugh at a great joke prior to the start of debate in the Sena...

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Jeremie was unsure if Prime Minister Patrick Manning would pay the outstanding half of a $1,153,811 legal debt incurred in 2002, when as Opposition Leader, he lost his High Court bid to stop the defection of Opposition MPs Dr Rupert Griffith and Dr Vincent Lasse to the then UNC Government.

Jeremie said other unpaid legal debts to the State included a $205,043 debt incurred in 2005 by Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, a $1 million debt owed since February 2009 by the duo of Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, a $160,000 debt owed since 2008 by Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma and a $144,418 debt owed since 2008 by Balram Singh.

Jeremie was replying yesterday in the Senate to a question from Senate Opposition Leader, Wade Mark on the status of Manning’s debt.

“The original costs awarded o the State in the 1997 High Court Action Numbers 834 and 1,000 totalled $1,153,811 with a statutory interest rate of six percent from the date of judgment,” Jeremie said. He said $555,000 was paid toward this debt on December 27, 2002.

However, Jeremie noted, “In 1997 there was no other matter in which a sum of money even remotely similar to this has been either awarded to or collected by the State as costs. No equivalent sum has ever been received by the State as costs in any action ever”.

Jeremie said the average award to the State in a matter that has gone to trial is usually about $12,000 to $15,000, and it is often presumed that the costs of recovery might outweigh the costs awarded.

“Matters such as the consolidated matters involving the then Leader of the Opposition therefore, where joint costs awarded amounted to just over $1million, are extremely rare and considered an aberration in practice”.

Jeremie said that at present the State has no official policy position regarding recovery of costs owed to it, including a policy for the varying circumstances of each case.

Asked if he would write-off Manning’s debt, Jeremie said the Government would not formulate a policy for a specific person but only generally.

He wanted a policy on costs in cases of public law. Regarding a time-frame, the AG said this issue was “not a pressing matter”.