The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal’s president has suggested that Lyford Cay mogul Peter Nygard’s appeal of two of his three contempt of court convictions may not be heard until or unless he purges his contempt before a Supreme Court judge.

Sir Hartman Longley, during proceedings yesterday, voiced his concerns as to whether the appellate court should entertain Mr Nygard’s appeal given that he has three times been convicted of contempt and has yet to appear in court to atone for his latter two convictions.

However, that would mean Mr Nygard has to come back to The Bahamas to do so, and the minute he sets foot in the jurisdiction, he will be immediately apprehended pursuant to the arrest warrant Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson issued last month.

Additionally, Mr Nygard’s motion for a stay of the sentencing hearings concerning his second and third contempt of court convictions were withdrawn by his attorney Keod Smith, who said the “factual matrix” that compelled him to apply for the stay has since changed.

Meanwhile, one of Mr Nygard’s Canadian lawyers Jay Prober said Justice Grant-Thompson’s decision to issue the arrest warrant was “grossly unfair” to his client and “totally unnecessary”.

Mr Prober also noted that the judge’s order “showed little compassion” despite Mr Nygard offering to appear by “video conference” in light of his inability to appear before her in person for “medical reasons”.

“He’s not acting above the law,” Mr Prober said. “He’s acting on a basis of doctor’s recommendations that it could be fatal for him to travel.” The Canadian attorney further stated Mr Nygard’s team has appealed the warrant, and “expects it to be quashed”.

Meanwhile, he said his client’s health treatments are still underway, and that despite this latest civil action, his company, Nygard Fashions, and its worldwide operations “continues with business as usual.”

The matter resumes on March 13.

Last week, Justice Grant-Thompson ordered Nygard’s “immediate arrest” for his failure to appear on three occasions to be sentenced for breaching a court order prohibiting him from engaging in any illegal dredging near his Lyford Cay home.

Justice Grant-Thompson issued the bench warrant after saying she has “zero tolerance” for the Lyford Cay resident failing to honour her orders for him to appear in court for his own sentencing hearings.

She also ordered that Mr Nygard will have to show cause for why he should not be committed to prison for failing to show in court on those occasions, as she said the fashion designer was “duly informed” of the orders she made last week.

And that order came a week after Justice Grant-Thompson ordered the 77-year-old to appear in court and explain why he failed to appear on those two previous occasions to be sentenced for dredging the sea bed near Nygard Cay between March and April 2015, and again in October of 2016, despite a June 2013 injunction prohibiting him from doing so.

Mr Nygard, via his attorneys Carlton Martin and Rashad Martin, subsequently appealed Justice Grant-Thompson’s order, and is further seeking an order from the appellate court that all matters in the Supreme Court proceed without him “being required or compelled by the court to be present,” and in “due consideration” to an order made in 2018 which he asserts brought the matter to an end.

Mr Nygard is also seeking to have all further proceedings in the action stayed pending the hearing of his constitutional motion, which was filed a week ago, concerning the infringement of his fundamental rights to both freedom of movement and detention.

He further asserts that the judge erred in both fact and law in treating the contempt proceedings as criminal contempt proceedings, and that she erred in ordering the issuance of a warrant for his arrest, in spite of or at the same time as ordering him to show cause why he shouldn’t be committed to prison.