The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior trade union executive and other former City Markets employees have alleged that an attorney “deducted unauthorised and unexplained fees” from sums he received on their behalf from the defunct supermarket chain’s pension plan.

Donna Moss, general secretary of the Bahamas Commercial Stores and Warehouse Workers Union, alleged in a November 19, 2013, affidavit that attorney James Thompson had failed to “account for or justify” the fees deducted from pension payments made to union members.

The documents were filed with the Supreme Court registry ahead of today’s hearing, at which Mr Thompson, representing 10 former City Markets workers in an effective ‘class action’ lawsuit, is trying to commit the company’s former principal, Mark Finlayson, and the pension fund’s trustees to Fox Hill prison for alleged contempt of court.

Yet Mr Finlayson and the trustees, who are represented by attorney Kenyatta Gibson, have filed documents attempting to strike out the December 5, 2012, Order that forms the basis of Mr Thompson’s action.

They have also petitioned the Supreme Court to “reconsider and reverse its decision” allowing the workers’ action to proceed, and “admonish” Mr Thompson not to “purport to act” on behalf of any union member in relation to the City Markets pension fund.

The Supreme Court will have to sort all this out, but Ms Moss’s affidavit, filed in support of Mr Finlayson and the trustees’ case, said it was made with the union’s authority.

She alleged that she had “received numerous complaints” from union members that Mr Thompson had collected payments from the City Markets pension fund on their behalf.

“Said complaints included the objection of union members to attorney James Thompson deducting unauthorised fees and unexplained fees out of the sums paid to his Chambers by the retirement plan of Bahamas Supermarkets, and that [Mr Thompson] did not properly account, or reasonably justify, the fees taken out of our union members’ said payments,” Ms Moss alleged.

She further claimed that the union “strongly opposes” Mr Thompson receiving pension payments on its members’ behalf, and asked the Supreme Court to order him to “cease and desist”.

Ms Moss said the union was working with the trustees to ensure its members received “appropriate and proper benefits and payments” from the pension plans.

She alleged that the payments requested by Mr Thompson, first via an August 12, 2012, summons, and then via the December 5, 2012, court Order, were “outside and not authorised as proper payments” that are required by the pension plan.

Ms Moss’s affidavit was backed by two more form former City Markets employees, Idell Smith and Betty Rolle, who both alleged that Mr Thompson told them he would deduct from their payments “a percentage fee with no account as to the time he spent working on the matter”.

They each alleged that they never authorised him to deduct fees out of the pension payments received on their behalf, and opposed him receiving any more.

This newspaper has previously 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 Finlayson, who is no longer a trustee, previously said the Supreme Court was in possession of evidence showing “how the trustees disbursed those funds received from the sale of the Cable Beach assets and the bonds”.

And he disclosed in an e-mail: “$600,00-plus was disbursed to the qualified beneficiaries. This was done by individual cheques in the joint name of each beneficiary and Mr Thompson.

“$140,000-plus was disbursed to those beneficiaries that had already informed the trustees, in writing, that Mr Thompson did not represent them. Any amount left is being used to pay the legal and professional fees the trust has incurred as a result of this lawsuit.”

CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) has been subpoenaed by Mr Thompson to produce all financial records relating to the defunct supermarket chain’s pension plan in time for today’s hearing.

Mr Gibson had previously told Tribune Business 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.

He had accused Mr 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.