Brady's close call - Avoids eviction for outstanding rent
Published:Thursday | November 9, 2017 | 12:00 AMLivern Barrett
Disbarred attorney Harold Brady narrowly avoided eviction from his rented home in the upscale St Andrew community of Cherry Gardens yesterday minutes before bailiffs were set to move in with two court orders.
A team, under the supervision of Oswald Sherriah, bailiff for the Supreme Court, gathered outside Brady's home shortly after daybreak yesterday armed with an eviction order and an order for the seizure and sale of items found inside.
"The reason the truck is not here is because I was asked to hold until 10 o'clock [yesterday] because the person who owes the money is supposed to be paying if not all, a portion of same," Sherriah told The Gleaner shortly before midday.
The order for seize and sale, according to Sherriah, was handed down in the Supreme Court in August this year to satisfy a debt for outstanding rent, which, at that time, totalled US$65,567, or approximately J$7.8 million.
The bailiffs were set to move in at 2 o'clock, but the eviction was aborted after they got word from the attorney representing the owners of the property that a part of the debt had been paid.
The attorney for the owners of the property declined to comment.
However, Sherriah and other members of his team said Brady, a former candidate for the Jamaica Labour Party, still faces eviction. They noted, too, that the visit yesterday was the fourth since the court orders were obtained.
"The order for possession [eviction] and the order for seize and sale is valid for one year," one bailiff noted.
Calls to Brady's mobile telephone yesterday went unanswered.
Brady barred from practising as lawyer
In February this year, a disciplinary panel of the General Legal Council (GLC) took the decision to remove Harold Brady from the list of attorneys authorised to practise locally. The decision stemmed from the 2014 sale of property owned by state agency Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) for $140 million.
FCJ indicated, in documents presented before the disciplinary panel, that the full price of the property was paid to Brady, through his law firm Brady & Co, by the purchaser, Neville Gallimore.
However, FCJ contended that apart from two payments of $20 million and $50 million in July and August 2014, respectively, the balance of just over $111 million (including interest) remained outstanding.
"We find the conduct of the attorney reprehensible. Not only has the conduct of the attorney caused loss to his client, having been deprived of its money since April, 2014, but it has placed a stain on the reputation of attorneys, in general," the three-member disciplinary panel wrote in its decision.
"The complainant placed all its trust and confidence in the attorney (Brady) in retaining him to protect its interest in the sale of the property and in allowing him to collect the purchase price. This trust and confidence has been betrayed by the attorney who collected the purchase price and yet failed to account to his client for the balance," it continued.
The GLC panel noted at the time that it had to "act in the interest of the public to ensure that such conduct is never repeated and that the collective reputation of the profession is maintained".