Dalrymple-Philibert: I’ve never been dishonest

Attorney and former House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert is praising God after the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck out a misconduct case against her regarding the handling of a deceased man’s estate over 30 years ago.

“I’m very short on comments,” she told The Gleaner as she left the courtroom in downtown Kingston, adding, “I believe in a good God with a steady hand.”

“I have never been dishonest in any of my dealings with my clients. And, I thank God that this matter that has lived with me for so many years has to come to an end,” she said.

A three-judge panel ruled in her favour.

Dalrymple-Philibert had sought a judicial review of the General Legal Council’s (GLC) decision not to dismiss the complaint brought against her by the biological children of the late Clinton Clarke. The GLC regulates the legal profession in Jamaica. She complained that her rights would be breached if the case was allowed to go ahead.

The complaint involved three properties, but had a particular focus on a commercial property at 92 Barnett Street in Montego Bay, St James, which Dalrymple-Philibert was alleged to have sold after fraudulently obtaining a title and failing to discharge the matters for which her services were sought.

At yesterday’s hearing, King’s Counsel Symone Mayhew, who represents the GLC, told the court that the council did not oppose five orders sought by Dalrymple-Philibert. About 11 other orders initially sought were withdrawn.

The court granted the five orders, ending the long-running case.

Dalrymple-Philibert was represented by King’s Counsel Ransford Braham and attorney David Johnson, both instructed by the firm Samuda and Johnson.

The panel that granted the orders comprised Justices Simone Wolfe-Reece, Tricia Hutchinson Shelly and Tara Carr. Justice Sonya Wint-Blair, who was present at the start of the hearing, was replaced by Wolfe-Reece.

RESIGNATION

Dalrymple-Philibert, a former Jamaica Labour Party member of parliament for Trelawny Southern, last year resigned from that role and as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In 2022, the GLC threw out a request of Dalrymple-Philibert’s lawyers to dismiss the case, which was reopened in 2014, about 14 years after a similar complaint was dismissed, without a hearing.

Richard Clarke, the biological child of Clinton Clarke, who is the complainant and one of several legal beneficiaries, had been seeking redress after the case went dormant for years when the files went missing. The files were later found among the documents in the office of disbarred late attorney E.H. Williams. In 1997, the GLC dismissed the case without a hearing.

Neither Clarke nor his legal representatives were in court and Braham told the judges that documents for the hearing were served on them. He said they have “demonstrated no interest” in the matter.

Clarke later told this newspaper that he was “not surprised” at the decision.

Dalrymple-Philibert has strongly refuted the complaint against her, arguing that the complaint was similar to the one dismissed in 1997.

Her legal team argued that the delay in prosecuting the new complaint caused “substantial prejudice” and pursuing the matter would be an abuse of process and a breach of their client’s constitutional rights, points emphasised in the orders.

Attorney John Clarke, who represented the Clarke estate, said the committee, among other things, was a creature of statute and that it could not exercise a power or authority not given to it by statute; that it has no power to stay or strike out the matter and that there was never a hearing on the merits of the issue.

The lawyer shares no relation to the deceased.

Despite the legal arguments from Braham for why the case should not have been reopened, the GLC disciplinary committee had said the principles were not applicable as the complaint brought in 1995 was dismissed without a hearing on the merits of the claim.

Dalrymple-Philibert’s attorneys, Samuda and Johnson, had written on April 7, 2016 to Richard Clarke’s lawyer at the time, Clayton Morgan, suggesting a settlement. However, after the complainant itemised $85 million in costs on April 22, 2016, Dalrymple-Philibert applied to the GLC for dismissal of the matter.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com