All clear for JADCO - Court of Appeal dismisses latest move by Carey Brown

Chairman of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) Alexander Williams says that the decision by the Court of Appeal to toss out the latest legal action filed by the agency's former executive director was not surprising.

"I'm not surprised by the decision not to allow any further appeal by Mr Carey Brown because I think that the decision by the judge of first instance was sound," Williams told The Gleaner yesterday.

At the same time, he indicated that JADCO was pressing ahead with its search for a new executive director.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal, the nation's second highest court, dismissed Brown's application for leave to appeal the decision of High Court judge Kirk Anderson to deny him permission to challenge his sacking.

The ruling dealt a severe blow to his chances of reclaiming his job as JADCO boss.

JADCO wrote to Brown in September last year informing him that his services would be terminated the following month.

Through his attorney, Hugh Wildman, Brown went to the Supreme Court and obtained an ex parte injunction blocking his dismissal.

But after hearing legal arguments from Brown and attorneys representing JADCO on December 15, Justice Anderson refused Brown's application for leave to challenge his dismissal, indicating that there was no merit to his case.

Not satisfied with that ruling, Wildman took his case to the Appeal Court, arguing that his client was a public officer who could only be removed by the governor general, acting on the advice of the Public Service Commission after a hearing.

Brown was employed to the Government as a corporate planner before he was seconded to JADCO in 2013 as executive director.

However, President of the Court of Appeal Dennis Morrison, who delivered the ruling, sided with JADCO's attorneys that Brown's status as a public officer was not affected by his termination as executive director.

Williams said as far as JADCO was aware, Brown's employment at the anti-doping body was not as a public officer.

"As far as his post with JADCO is concerned, he was just an ordinary employee," Williams insisted.

The JADCO chairman said that the agency has already advertised the post of executive director and is now in the process of trying to fill the vacancy.