The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Leno Corporate Services’s principal yesterday lost the latest stage of his legal battle against former employer, Colina Financial Advisors (CFAL), after failing to show his termination was “anything other than redundancy”.

Sean Longley had alleged he was ‘unfairly dismissed’ after his relationship with CFAL president, Anthony Ferguson, “took a downward spiral” and his job responsibilities were “stripped away”, resulting in termination “under the ruse of redundancy”.

But Mr Ferguson (also the Nassau Guardian’s publisher) and CFAL countered by alleging that while Mr Longley’s work standards had deteriorated, the main reason for his redundancy was the “substantial” decrease in new clients as a result of the 2008 recession.

Mr Longley had appealed the Supreme Court’s rejection of his unfair dismissal claim to the Court of Appeal which, in a verdict handed down yesterday by its president, Anita Allen, backed the lower court’s findings in favour of Mr Ferguson and CFAL.

The Court of Appeal judgment said Mr Longley felt the relationship between himself and Mr Ferguson “deteriorated” in December 2006, when he felt the latter broke a previous promise to increase his salary to $95,000 and pay him a $39,000 bonus.

Instead, Mr Longley alleged that Mr Ferguson offered a salary increase to only $85,000, and a $29,000 bonus.

Following negotiations between the two sides, Mr Longley’s salary was increased to $87,500, and he received the $39,000 bonus.

“The appellant [Mr Longley] alleged thereafter that their relationship took a downward spiral,” the judgment said.

“He alleged that the president began finding fault with his work. He said the president complained...... that reconciliations were not properly being done, and brought in internal audit to review the accounting and reconciliation procedures which, he said, found nothing wrong with the reconciliation procedures employed by him.”

Mr Longley alleged that CFAL began taking away his job responsibilities, but Justice Allen said this was contradicted by him being given the mandate to expand the company’s business in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The Court of Appeal added that his salary was increased to $91,054 in January 2008, and Mr Longley was also made responsible for handling the switch to a new accounting system and its integration with the existing platform.

Nevertheless, Mr Longley said he lost the financial control function in February 2008, and responsibility for human resources in June that year, leaving him to focus on business development and pension administration.

There then followed a dispute over his poor 2008 performance appraisal, with Mr Longley listing his efforts “to ensure client confidence in 2009”.

Justice Allen said the CFAL/Mr Ferguson view was “very different”, with the company’s parent, AF Holdings, having decided to centralise accounting functions in 2008 to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

“He [Mr Ferguson] noted that there were complaints from clients of numerous errors in pension statements, incomplete corporate and client reconciliations, [and] over-budgeted costs for the implementation of the company’s updated accounting software, indicating a significant deterioration in the appellant’s work performance,” the Court of Appeal recorded.

This, Mr Ferguson alleged, resulted in Mr Longley’s transfer to the post of vice-president of business development and client relations.

But, with “no new business” allegedly being generated by Mr Longley due to the economic downturn, CFAL decided his post was “no longer tenable” and he was made redundant.

The Court of Appeal, summing up CFAL’s position, said Mr Longley’s termination was due to the fact “the number of new clients being attracted was substantially down”, and it was thus no longer necessary to keep him or his department.

Supporting the Supreme Court’s findings, Justice Allen’s ruling said Mr Longley had failed to prove his dismissal was down to “bad feelings between him” and Mr Ferguson.

“There was no evidence from which it could be reasonably inferred that the appellant’s termination was due to anything other than redundancy,” the Court of Appeal found.

Noting the extra responsibilities and salary rise given to Mr Longley during the period in question, the judgment added: “It is notorious that 2008-2009 was the beginning of a serious global economic downturn, which affected financial growth locally.

“We therefore find that the evidence of the respondent that its business was significantly reduced, and that the prospect of new business was seriously affected, was reasonable.”

The Court of Appeal agreed that the need for CFAL’s marketing department, and Mr Longley’s services, had “diminished”. And there was nothing to show his dismissal was ‘unfair’.

It also found that the total $114,161 paid to Mr Longley upon his termination was appropriate compensation.

Indeed, Mr Longley has gone from strength to strength since his departure from CFAL, setting up his own financial services advisory firm, Leno Corporate Services, which competes directly with his former employer.

Leno offers services such as pension administration; investment management; brokerage; accounting and payroll; and financial consulting.

Its chairman is Monty Braithwaite, former head of Colina Insurance Company, and among Leno’s executives is former CFAL executive, Khalil Braithwaite.

Mr Longley did not return Tribune Business’s phone messages seeking comment on the Court of Appeal ruling. He was represented by Thomas Evans QC, while CFAL was represented by Terry North of Alexiou, Knowles & Company.