The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader will this week initiate legal action against the Government over $250,000 in loss and damages his law firm suffered when it was “crippled” by the Village Road roadworks.

Branville McCartney, the Halsbury Chambers principal, pledged to Tribune Business he will start work on his law firm’s claim once he returns from his daughter’s university graduation as he accused government ministers and officials of being “as quiet as a mouse” over his concerns.

He added that, despite writing to Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, and Luther Smith, the ministry’s permanent secretary, three times since April 2023 to set out his firm’s case for compensation he has “not even had the decency of a response” or acknowledgement.

Mr McCartney’s claim is separate and distinct from the collective compensation that Village Road businesses are seeking over the loss of business, and property damage, they sustained from roadworks that lasted well over a year and were extended several times beyond their completion date. He and Halsbury Chambers are asserting that they, individually, were effectively put out of business for two weeks last July when a power “outage” destroyed all electrical equipment.

Asserting that the lack of response is evidence of “the same old, same old”, despite the Davis administration’s promise of ‘new day’ governance, the ex-DNA leader told this newspaper: “I’ve asked the Government, by way of a letter a few months back, to compensate my firm for the loss of business and damages done last July as a result of the roadworks.

“That really outed my firm for about two weeks because of the damage done to by the road development to my offices, which caused all of my equipment - from computers to alarm systems, cameras, the Internet, phones - everything went down. We had to buy new equipment. We were crippled business-wise for about two weeks.