SASCHA WIL­SON

A re­tired po­lice su­per­in­ten­dent who sued the then-Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice over four years ago, has been award­ed more than $200,000 in dam­ages.

High Court Mas­ter Shur­land Pierre award­ed the mon­ey to Ce­les­tine Phillip, who was suc­cess­ful in his ju­di­cial re­view claim against the then-Com­mis­sion­er.

Phillip con­tend­ed that the Com­mis­sion­er at the time failed to com­plete an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions against him in a time­ly man­ner, re­sult­ing in his manda­to­ry re­tire­ment and be­ing de­nied pro­mo­tion to the rank of Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent.

An in­ves­ti­ga­tion was ini­ti­at­ed af­ter in­de­cent as­sault al­le­ga­tions were made against Phillip by a woman po­lice con­sta­ble. As a re­sult, Phillip was sus­pend­ed on March 15, 2012, pend­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

His sus­pen­sion was lift­ed on April 5, 2016, to fa­cil­i­tate his manda­to­ry re­tire­ment from the Po­lice Ser­vice.

How­ev­er, Phillip had suc­cess­ful­ly writ­ten the po­lice pro­mo­tion ex­am­i­na­tion and got suf­fi­cient points to be placed sec­ond on an Or­der Mer­it List for el­e­va­tion to the rank of se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent.

But his pro­mo­tion was with­held be­cause of the pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and he sub­se­quent­ly re­tired.

Rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Michael Rooplal, Jamie Aman­da Ma­haraj and Vis­han Gir­war, Phillip was grant­ed leave by Jus­tice Kevin Ram­cha­ran on No­vem­ber 7, 2018, to pur­sue ju­di­cial re­view pro­ceed­ings.

Two years lat­er, Jus­tice Ram­cha­ran found that the fail­ure—and con­tin­ued fail­ure—of the Com­mis­sion­er to make a de­ci­sion with­in a rea­son­able time in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­le­ga­tions against Phillip, was un­law­ful.

In his judg­ment, the judge stat­ed:

“…in the ab­sence of any ev­i­dence to the con­trary, the claimant ought to have been pro­mot­ed to the rank of Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent on the 22 05 14.”

Fol­low­ing the judge's rul­ing, the mat­ter went be­fore Mas­ter Pierre for an as­sess­ment of dam­ages and was heard in May 2022.

On Tues­day (Jan­u­ary 24, 2023), Mas­ter Pierre or­dered the State to pay Phillip $125,000 in gen­er­al dam­ages, $70,000 for loss of salary, and $10,000 for nom­i­nal dam­ages for loss of pen­sion.  The State al­so must pay Phillip’s le­gal costs.

The Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Kar­lene Seenath and Am­ri­ta Ram­sook.