The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) has been subpoenaed by attorneys acting for several former City Markets employees to produce all financial records relating to the defunct supermarket chain’s pension plan, Tribune Business can reveal.

A copy of the summons, filed in the Supreme Court on November 8, 2013, requires the bank to “give evidence” on behalf of 10 former City Markets workers at a November 22 court hearing set for Freeport.

The subpoena, which sources said was served on CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) on Tuesday, requires it produce “all records pertaining to all accounts operated by the City Market Retirement Plan” with it.

The document requires CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) to provide “copies of the records, including entry and withdrawals, of all accounts of Bahamas Supermarkets Retirement Plan.”

In particular, the subpoena asks for “records of all deposits and withdrawals, and cheques negotiated and deposited, and documents of the accounts”.

But Kenyatta Gibson, the attorney representing the trustees for the City Markets pension fund, told Tribune Business that he was unaware of the CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) subpoena and would have to obtain his clients’ permission before commenting.

The subpoena, though, appears to be an attempt to piece together the jigsaw that is the pension fund’s history over the past decade, during which City Markets went through three owners before going out of business, its last remaining leasehold store interests being acquired by Super Value.

The November 22 hearing is supposed to be a committal hearing, at which attorneys for the former employees are attempting to have the pension fund trustees jailed for allegedly failing to obey a Court Order.

But Mr Gibson last month said he had moved to “strike out” that court Order, asserting that the $800,000 at the centre of the dispute had already been paid to pension fund beneficiaries.

He told Tribune Business then that the trustees for the Bahamas Supermarkets Profit Sharing Retirement Trust would be “vindicated”, and said their opponents were “taking away the option” for beneficiaries who wanted the plan to remain in existence.

Pointing out that former City Markets principal, Mark Finlayson, was no longer a trustee, Mr Gibson had accused attorney James Thompson and his clients, including former City Markets’ chief inventory control officer, Whanslaw Turnquest, of trying to extract “as much as they can” from the pension fund.

Mr Gibson said the December 5, 2012, Order, which has formed the basis for Mr Thompson’s actions, was obtained at a Supreme Court hearing in Freeport when neither the trustees, nor their attorneys, were present.

That Order, Mr Gibson added, required the City Markets employee pension fund to “pay more funds to the beneficiaries”, but this happened only after attorneys deducted their legal fees.

This newspaper has seen documents where attorneys are charging 20 per cent of the sums paid out to City Markets pension plan beneficiaries as fees for their services.

Mr Gibson said these fees were “considerable”, and added that Mr Thompson and his clients had failed to properly serve Mr Finlayson and the trustees with papers relating to the December 2012 Order.

While “not conceding” anything, Mr Gibson said there was a suggestion that one trustee may now have been served, enabling him to respond with Supreme Court filings of his own.

“Today in court, we immediately filed an action, a summons, asking the Court to strike out the December 2012 Order on the basis that those funds have already been paid,” Mr Gibson told Tribune Business.

“We filed an affidavit where 100 beneficiaries say they don’t wish him [Mr Thompson] to represent them in the action he’s bringing, and want to come to terms with the trustees.....

“The trustees will be vindicated. Everyone is living up to their fiduciary responsibilities. They are trying to live up to their commitments.”