The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Electricity Corporation Chairman Leslie Miller has moved forward with a lawsuit against President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union Paul Maynard for defamation and libel. Court documents will be filed tomorrow or at the latest next Tuesday, according lawyer Owen Wells, who represents Mr Miller.

Mr Wells, a lawyer with the firm McKinney Turner and Co, said he wrote Mr Maynard on January 19, demanding that he apologise over numerous allegations he made in a letter addressed to Labour Minister Shane Gibson on January 13.

Mr Wells said Mr Maynard was warned that if he did not apologise within seven days the firm would proceed with legal action in the Supreme Court.

The lawyer told The Tribune the deadline was yesterday and Mr Maynard has failed to apologise or respond to the letter.

“Mr Maynard made some statements, we wrote him in regard to those statements and told him he had seven days to respond, he did not and so we are moving forward and heading to the Supreme Court,” he said.

“We are in the process of drafting a writ of summons for defamation and libel. We intend to sue him personally, not the union. Papers will be before the court on Friday, Tuesday the latest.

“He will have to answer that, then we will move toward a trial.”

When contacted yesterday, Mr Miller said he hopes Mr Maynard “saved up all his overtime” pay because he will need it.

“I am moving full steam ahead with this lawsuit. I spoke with my lawyers and now we are going to the Supreme Court. I am going to take all the overtime he (made) from the Bahamian people from him,” he said.

Last week, Mr Maynard told The Tribune he will never apologise for the comments he made. At the time he said he “welcomed a lawsuit” if it means “the truth will finally be revealed”.

In the letter addressed to Minister Gibson, Prime Minister Perry Christie and Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, Mr Maynard alleged that Mr Miller is using the controversial issue of overtime pay “as a smoke screen” for the “unethical things” that Mr Maynard claimed he is doing at BEC.

He also claimed that Mr Miller signed an engine maintenance contract without board approval and was a “consultant” for the firm in question. Mr Maynard also alleged that Mr Miller was “being very deceitful to the government and the Bahamian public.”

Mr Miller has strongly denied the allegations.