Trinidad and Tobago - delay in giving judgment - no breach of litigant's constitutional rights

Boodhoo and another v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago: PC (Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hope of Craighead, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell and Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood): 1 April 2004

A claim brought by the appellants was dismissed by a judge in April 1989.

An appeal was eventually heard by the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago in May 1996.

Judgment was reserved but, on 17 July 1997, without judgment having been prepared or given, one of the judges suddenly died.

The appeal was listed for rehearing in 1998, but requests by both parties for financial assistance from the Attorney- General were not met and the appellants were unable to afford another hearing.

Their constitutional motion, complaining of a breach of, among other things, their right to 'the protection of the law' under section 4(b) of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, was refused by the High Court.

The Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago dismissed their appeal.

They appealed to the Privy Council.

Peter Knox (instructed by Collyer-Bristow) for the appellants; James Guthrie QC, Thomas Roe and Nadine Nabie (State Counsel, Trinidad and Tobago) (instructed by Charles Russell) for the Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that delay was capable of depriving an individual of his right to the protection of the law but only where the judge could no longer produce a proper judgment or the parties were unable to obtain from the decision the benefit which they should; that whether a breach of constitutional rights had occurred depended on the facts of each case; that the death of a judge was one of a number of potential hazards faced by litigants; and that, in the circumstances, neither the delay in judgment of over 13 months nor the judge's death infringed the appellants' constitutional rights.