DEREK ACHONG
Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A woman, whose mother died suddenly a little over a month before she was due to celebrate her 49th birthday in 2019, has failed in her bid to sue her mother’s former employer, the administrators of the hospital that treated her and the police for failing to properly investigate her death.
High Court Judge Frank Seepersad dismissed Afeisha Hutson’s novel case against National Canners Limited, the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) and the Office of the Attorney General as it came up for virtual trial Tuesday.
Justice Seepersad rendered his decision after Hutson’s lawyer Shalini Sankar closed her case and presented the evidence of Hutson, her father Rawle, and her mother’s former co-worker Laurel Sobers.
He did not even bother to listen to the evidence presented by the three defendants.
Justice Seepersad noted that there was no evidence to prove Hutson’s claims against any of the three defendants.
“It was an unfortunate chain of events and there is nothing to suggest culpability should lie with any of the defendants,” he said. Justice Seepersad found no fault in how the company handled the situation after she complained of feeling unwell.
“There is absolutely no evidence to suggest the First Defendant (National Canners) failed to discharge its obligations towards its employee in such a manner to breach its duty of care,” he said.
Dealing with the case against the NCRHA, Justice Seepersad noted that Hutson did not present any evidence from a medical expert to prove that the care provided to her mother fell below accepted standards.
“There is nothing to suggest that the doctors failed to follow any proper protocol or procedure...It was really an untimely death due to a medical condition,” he said.
He also noted that the police could not be criticised for how they handled Hutson’s report that her mother may have been poisoned.
Justice Seepersad questioned why Hutson was not advised against pursuing the case.
“Lawyers must properly advise clients in cases where they simply lack the proper evidence,” he said. Despite empathising with Hutson and her relatives, Justice Seepersad still ordered her to pay the defendants $14,000 in legal costs for the lawsuit.
However, he left it up to the parties to decide whether they would seek to enforce the cost order. Hutson’s mother Treverlene began vomiting while working in the company’s production department after consuming a fish meal that she and her colleagues had purchased.
While her family claimed that she was only allowed to leave to seek medical attention when her husband came to meet her around 3 pm, the company claimed that she chose to remain until her husband arrived. It also admitted that Sobers’ sister also had the same symptoms, decided to go to the hospital and survived.
Hutson was taken to the Arima Health Facility where she died while undergoing treatment.
An initial autopsy revealed that she died of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism caused by a blood clot in her lung. The family paid for a second autopsy by pathologist Dr Hubert Daisley, who sent samples taken for a toxicological examination. The family also made a report to police as they suspected that she had been poisoned.
The company was represented by Catherine Ramnarine, while the NCRHA was represented by Sushma Gopeesingh. The AG’s Office was represented by Ronelle Hinds.
