The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian attorney yesterday slammed as “totally false” claims he had misused monies intended to pay severance and pensions owed to long-suffering ex-City Markets staff for “his own personal benefit”.

James Roosevelt Thompson vehemently denied the allegations made by his former clients, which were aired in a recent Supreme Court verdict that dismissed his “preliminary objections” to their adding him as a defendant in a legal case begun 12 years ago following the supermarket chain’s collapse.

Ten ex-City Markets employees from Grand Bahama - Victoria Allen, Charles Forbes, Emily Adderley, Karia Cooper, Nancy Evans, Andrew Major, Malissa Saunders, Mavie Grant, Idella Grant and Anishka Bartlett - applied more than three years ago to add Mr Thompson as a defendant over allegations he was failing to pay them between $14,000-$16,000 he was receiving monthly on their behalf.

The attorney, father of east Grand Bahama MP, Kwasi Thompson, had acted for the ten - some of whom have since died - when they launched their initial 2012 legal action against City Markets’ parent company, Bahamas Supermarkets; its final majority owner, Trans-Island Traders; and the latter’s principals, Mark Finlayson and his father, Garet ‘Tiger’ Finlayson.

The employees’ bid to recover their due severance and pension monies resulted in a purported settlement where a Finlayson family-owned company, Associated Bahamian Distillers & Brewers (ABDAB), surrendered its 70 percent majority equity ownership in a company called Trinity Ltd to James Thompson.

That entity owned a West Bay Street shopping complex, Trinity Plaza, and Tribune Business reporting from 2016 shows that James Thompson was supposed to hold the 70 percent stake in trust on the employees’ behalf. The rental income received from the plaza’s retail tenants was then supposed to pay the workers their due severance and pension entitlements, but they are alleging this has not happened.

Justice Camille Darville-Gomez, in a September 18, 2024, verdict that dismissed James Thompson’s objections to being added as a defendant and ruled that the matter should be determined via a full trial, wrote: “The Trinity building situated on West Bay Street was owned by the trust [City Markets pension plan] and Mr Thompson entered into an arrangement to obtain 70 percent of the shares.

“This has resulted in him collecting rent of $14,000-$16,000 monthly. The claimants allege that these funds are being collected by Mr Thompson for his own personal use and benefit.” While these claims have not been proven in the Supreme Court, the former City Markets staff applied on July 16, 2021, to have their now ex-attorney added as a defendant.

They are also seeking a Supreme Court order that James Thompson “forthwith transfer all of the 70 percent shares in Trinity Ltd” to the employees’ accountant, Louis Butler, who will replace the attorney and hold this interest on trust for the benefit of all beneficiaries of the City Markets employee pension plan, known as the Bahamas Supermarkets Profit Sharing Retirement Plan.

The ex-staff are also demanding that James Thompson “account for all monies collected, disbursed and expended” from the Trinity Plaza rents “up to the time he transfer the 70 percent shares” to Mr Butler, and that the latter use all monies received to pay the pension beneficiaries and maintain the shopping complex.

James Thompson, who initially asked Tribune Business for time to read the Supreme Court’s verdict on the basis that he had not seen it when first contacted by this newspaper, asserted that allegations he was using the five-figure monthly rental income from Trinity Ltd for his own personal benefit were “totally false”.

Kwasi Thompson, who had acted as his father’s attorney in the case before Justice Darville-Gomez, said he was no longer providing legal representation and referred this newspaper to his replacement, Constance McDonald. Ms McDonald could not be reached by phone, and did not respond to this newspaper’s message before press time last night.

And James Thompson, when contacted again by Tribune Business, also referred this newspaper to Ms McDonald. “I have to rely on the lawyer,” he added. He did, though, point out that the dispute has been going on “for about ten years now” and said the judge has made no findings - adverse or otherwise - on both the misuse of monies claim or the bid to add him as a defendant in the action.

Justice Darville-Gomez, in her ruling, said James Thompson’s first objection to being added as a defendant was his assertion that the former employees had been “excluded” by an earlier Supreme Court Order from being able to stand as plaintiffs in the case.

This, though, was rejected by Rouschard Martin, the current attorney for the former City Markets employees. He asserted that both himself and James Thompson were present when ex-chief justice, Sir Hartman Longley, ruled in August 2015 that Mr Martin was the attorney for all former staff.

However unwilling to let the matter rest, James Thompson then alleged that a Supreme Court Order dating from December 17, 2013, meant the City Markets case was “permanently stayed”. This assertion was branded “totally illogical and misleading” by Mr Martin, who denied that such an Order existed.

He added that all sides had consented to the Supreme Court conducting an “assessment”, but this had been frustrated by the separate “full-scale ongoing litigation” involving the City Markets pension’ trustees attempting to sell the plan’s most valuable asset - the company’s former East-West Highway headquarters building - to BISX-listed AML Foods.

James Thompson’s third and final objection was to assert that the former City Markets staff he once represented had “settled” the action back in December 2013. He alleged that the Trinity Plaza’s 70 percent majority stake was “conveyed solely to pay” legal costs owing to him, and that payment of outstanding severance and benefits was to come from the pension plan trustees when the head office was sold.

This was again denied by Mr Martin, who asserted: “It is clear and obvious that the plaintiffs are clamouring for help to resolve the live and kicking issues which emanate from the consent Order of September 23, 2016. The parties have settled on liability and have decided to have an assessment done to settle the issue of severance and pension.”

Justice Darville-Gomez, who said she was familiar with both the September 2016 Order and “assessment” from her time as Supreme Court deputy registrar, said the latter has yet to be completed but was intended to identify the City Markets pension fund’s assets “or missing assets”; the plan’s income, expenditure and present financial condition; what sums were owed to the plan; and what was due to each beneficiary.

She described James Thompson’s objections as “difficult to reconcile given what has transpired in the action over the years, in particular since 2016”, finding against his claims that the matter was “permanently stayed” and Mr Martin could not represent the ex-employees.

“The plaintiffs continue to vigorously assert their rights to obtain their severance and pension benefits from the defendants per the assessment Order and therefore the action is not settled,” Justice Darville-Gomez ruled.

“The claimants in the action, some of whom have died since the action has been commenced, have been trying over the years to obtain their entitlement to their pension and severance from the defendants [City Markets]. It would be premature of the court, given all that has transpired, to find in favour of Mr Thompson at this stage without a full hearing of the application to add him as a party.”