No compensation for former Bellevue administrator

The Supreme Court has ruled that it was an abuse of the process of the court for Silvera Adjudah, former hospital administrator of the Bellevue Hospital, to file another claim last year seeking full compensation for unlawful and wrongful termination of his job in November 2010.

Adjudah had first filed a claim in 2017 but the Master in Chambers ruled in May 2019 that it was statute barred, as it was not filed within the six-year limitation period. He filed an application for permission to appeal but the Court of Appeal heard the application in April 2021 and refused to grant permission.

Justice Simone Wolfe Reece heard two applications last month and ruled that the claim was frivolous and vexatious and an abuse of the process of the court.

Adjudah, who represented himself, had contended in the claim that in 2016, he discovered the fraud that led to his termination therefore time should run from the date of discovery. He contended that he discovered that illegal documents of fraudulent performance appraisal and fraudulent memorandum of complaint were used to terminate him and he was not given a hearing.

He later filed an application for judgment to be entered against the defendants because they failed to file a defence to his claim.

The defendants – who were the Attorney General, South East Regional Health Authority and Donald Farquharson – brought an application to strike out the claim or in the alternative for extension of time to file and serve their defence.

Attorney-at-law Louis Jean Hacker, who was instructed by the Director of State Proceedings, submitted on behalf of the defendants that the 2022 claim was a replica of the 2017 claim in which the Court of Appeal had upheld the ruling of then Master in Chambers Pamela Mason (now acting Supreme Court Judge).

Justice Wolfe-Reece struck out the claim which she described as nothing more than “a collateral attack” on a judgment of the court.

Legal costs were awarded to the defendants.

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