Court of Appeal concludes second session for the year |26 August 2023

The Court of Appeal concluded it second session for the year yesterday, delivering judgments in four criminal appeals, 22 civil appeals and 11 miscellaneous applications.

The court has disposed of 120 cases so far this year, comprising both appeal cases and miscellaneous applications in civil and criminal matters.

President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Anthony Fernando expressed satisfaction over the fact that criminal appeals are disposed of speedily, within a period of six to nine months of filing. He, however, called on all lawyers, court staff and his fellow justices to cooperate to dispose of civil appeals within the same timeframe.

“We must be alive to the fact that it is the wish of every litigant to see a finality to their cases, whatever the outcome of their cases may be. Some win, some lose, but I believe they all prefer not to enter the portals of these courts over and over again or wait in anguish not knowing what the outcome of their appeals would be,” Justice Fernando stated.

Despite an improvement in the way grounds of appeal are framed by the majority of attorneys, a number still continue to file vague grounds, adding on to the Justices of Appeals’ workload, Justice Fernando pointed out.

Once again, he encouraged members of the Bar to keep the court registry informed of any changes concerning appeal cases, and not to waste the court’s precious time and resources.

Providing an overview of the court’s August session, Justice Fernando stated that the court had the occasion to “season justice with mercy and ensure that a fair hearing was granted in the spirit of the Constitutional guarantee offered to all litigants that come before the court,” added Justice Fernando.

In the case of Dimitry Sandul, a Russian national who was appealing against the two-and-a-half-year sentence imposed by the Supreme Court, he had sought to withdraw his appeal against sentence, but was advised against doing so by the court.

Mr Sandul was sentenced earlier this year after his 17-month-old son was found unresponsive and later certified dead, after being left unattended in a car park at Anse Royale.

The Appeal court felt that the sentence meted out to him “was manifestly excessive taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the case”. As such, the sentence imposed by the trial court was quashed, and the Court of Appeal imposed a lower sentence, and ordered his release soon after the hearing of the appeal. The accused had already served six months.

Since the conclusion of the December 2022 session, the court has disposed of 15 criminal appeals, inclusive of the four criminal appeals, for which judgments were delivered yesterday.  A further seven are listed for the December session, as well as an additional seven, which are to be disposed of next year.

The court has also concluded six criminal miscellaneous applications and is left with one other pending criminal miscellaneous application.

As for civil appeals, 54 appeals have been disposed of since the conclusion of the December 2022 session. Excluding the 21 civil appeals listed for the December session, nine civil appeals which were filed this year will be disposed of next year.

There are two constitutional appeals pending before the Court presently, both of which have been listed for the December session.

In addition, the court has also concluded 45 civil miscellaneous applications, and as at yesterday had four pending.

As of yesterday, the court is left with 44 appeals, both civil and criminal, inclusive of the 28 appeals listed for the August 2023 session. If it should succeed in dealing with the 28 appeals listed for December 2023, only 16 appeal cases, both civil and criminal will be left by the end of the December session. All were filed this year.

The court also hopes to be able to deal with five civil and criminal miscellaneous applications, by the end of this year.

Laura Pillay