The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A JUDGE said yesterday that she will rule in January 2017 on the admissibility of correspondence and/or other documents concerning Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard that were prepared before December 2014 when alleged dredging activities were occurring on or around Nygard Cay.

Committal proceedings for Mr Nygard continued before Justice Rhonda Bain concerning his alleged breach of an order during an ongoing judicial review to determine whether the fashion designer had illegally increased the size of his property.

The Lyford Cay resident was not present in the Ansbacher House courtroom as he had been excused last week from the proceedings after his lawyer Elliot Lockhart, QC, successfully applied to Justice Bain for him to be excused from the scheduled proceedings until January 23, 2017, when the committal hearing is expected to be completed.

Before the start of yesterday’s hearing where attorney Melissa Hall was to give her evidence concerning her legal representation of Mr Nygard, Fred Smith, QC, and lead lawyer for Save The Bays, had applied to have a series of documents admitted into evidence for consideration.

Mr Lockhart asked for a 30-minute recess to review the documents that had been brought to the courtroom by the applicants for Mr Nygard’s committal.

After the break, Mr Lockhart stressed his objection to the admissibility of all the documents that have been produced.

Mr Nygard’s lawyer argued that the court could not take judicial notice of them and that they were not produced through the proper chain of custody in accordance with the Evidence Act.

“The documents surfacing at this stage when it’s not possible for the alleged condemner to put any questions to the maker is unfair,” Mr Lockhart said.

“There is a provision in the Evidence Act which give the court the discretion to exclude any evidence if it would be unfair to any party. This is one such instance,” Mr Nygard’s lawyer added.

Mr Lockhart stressed that the documents, dating back as far as 1986 had no relevance to the allegation that Peter Nygard, in December 2014, had breached the order of the court.

“The subject matter here is whether Peter Nygard is guilty of breaching paragraph two of your order. Your order came long after these documents,” the lawyer said.

The matter was adjourned to January 19, 2017 for further submissions from Mr Lockhart and responding submissions from Mr Smith.

The judge will then rule on the matter before allowing Ms Hall to resume her testimony.

Save The Bays’ battle with Mr Nygard over the construction/development activities at his Lyford Cay home stem from allegations that the activities have led to substantial growth of the property.

The group claims that the Lyford Cay resident has almost doubled the size of his property, from 3.25 acres to 6.1 acres, since he acquired it in 1984, by allegedly reclaiming Crown land from the sea. The advocacy group has alleged that Mr Nygard achieved this without the necessary permits and approvals, claims that have been denied by the fashion designer.

In 2015, Justice Bain was asked to recuse herself from committal proceedings involving Mr Nygard through a notice of motion filed in the Supreme Court by his former lawyer on the grounds of bias. However, in January, Justice Bain said Mr Nygard had not proved there was evidence of bias or apparent bias towards him and found the accusations to be “scandalous”.

The Court of Appeal, in June, affirmed Justice Bain’s rejection of the application in an appeal of the decision by the Lyford Cay resident.