COA: Contempt of Court Upheld Against Lawyer

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Court of Appeal upheld a contempt of court finding against lawyer and aspiring politician Donna Dorsett-Major, but reduced her fine from $35,000 to $20,000 on Thursday.

Dorsett-Major, who ran as the Coalition of Independents’ candidate in Bain Town in the September 16 general election, has a month to pay the money. Failing to do so, will result in Ms Dorsett-Major spending 21 days in prison.

The Court of Appeal also set aside an order for her to  pay $20,000 in legal fees to the government lawyer Kayla Green-Smith, who had acted as a friend of the court during the contempt hearing.

The contempt proceedings stemmed from a civil case where Senior Justice Indra Charles found Dorsett-Major professionally negligent after she acted as the lawyer for both a vendor and purchaser in a property sale.

Allan and Sharon Crawford sued Dorsett-Major for professional negligence after they had a dispute with Stubbs over property boundaries.

Following the decision, Dorsett-Major filed an affidavit to support an application for the judge to step down from the case before assessing damages.

In the affidavit, Dorsett-Major alleged that the Crawfords  “greeted” the judge at the Cat Island airport when the court travelled to the island to conduct a site visit, and travelled in their car.

She also claimed the judge told her that the Crawfords would drop the lawsuit against her and Stubbs, if she convinced him to sell his property for a reduced price of $100,000.

The Court of Appeal found that the allegations made by Dorsett-Major in the affidavit created a real risk of undermining public confidence in the judiciary and she was rightly held in contempt.

However, the Court ruled that the fine imposed by the judge was excessive.

The Court also found that the award of legal costs to the government’s lawyer was not justified.