Way clear for JAS to host long-delayed AGM
Published:Thursday | April 6, 2023 | 1:01 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The way is now clear for the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) to host its long overdue annual general meeting (AGM).
The AGM, which was postponed twice in 2021, had been rescheduled for July 2022.
However, Ian Hill, a member of the Westmoreland Association of Branch Societies, filed an injunction in the Supreme Court to have the nominations for the positions of president, first vice-president and second vice-president reopened, contending that the nominations, which were opened in October 2021 and closed in November 2021, were not in keeping with the provisions of the organisation’s constitution.
Two candidates were nominated for each of the three posts, which are to be settled at the AGM when the current executive, which was installed in 2018 for a three-year term, is expected to demit office. However, Hill’s court action had put the AGM on hold indefinitely.
Hill has been pressing for the reopening of nominations to allow for a broader slate of candidates to vie for the three executive positions.
When the case came up before Justice A. Pettigrew-Collins in the Supreme Court on March 29, JAS’s attorney, Georgia Hamilton, noted that Hill had brought the claim in private law, and argued that by virtue of his membership, he had no right to sue the JAS to enforce its by-laws.
She submitted that in order to sue the organisation in private law, Hill would have had to proceed through a relator claim that would require the prior approval of the attorney general, with such a claim being brought in the name of the attorney general and the costs borne by Hill.
Hamilton contended that this was not done and cannot now be done.
“The other option available to Mr Hill would have been to proceed in public law by way of an application for leave for judicial review,” the attorney further explained, “To proceed in this manner, Mr Hill would have had to obtain leave of the court and also would have needed to seek leave within three months of the decision or action complained of, but this was not done.”
Hamilton further argued that Hill also erred in seeking to have the court set the date for the AGM, which it does not have the power to do as this is the sole purview of the JAS board of directors.
The court upheld the submission that Hill does not have the right or capacity to bring such an action.
The JAS is expected to present evidence that everything is in place for the AGM to be held when the parties return to the Supreme Court on July 3.
The financials are also expected to be ready before the hosting of the AGM.
Meanwhile, JAS President Lenworth Fulton told The Gleaner that going forward, the JAS, which was formed in 1895, will look to modernise its constitution, which did not anticipate things such as the impact of a global pandemic.