NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Office of the Attorney General has reached a settlement in principle with Darnell Osborne on the lawsuit she brought after Bahamas Power & Light’s board collapsed in 2018.
Osborne’s lawyer, Damian Gomez, QC, said the agreement just requires cabinet approval, which he is confident it will receive.
A public hearing for the trial was scheduled this week but was canceled.
A settlement would close a saga during which former Minister of Works Desmond Bannister was accused of slandering Osborne and two other former BPL board directors, Nick Dean and Nicola Thompson.
Across court documents filed in recent months, Bannister and the former directors described in often personal terms how BPL’s board broke into two disharmonious factions that could not cooperate.
Bannister said yesterday: “We were fully prepared for trial and were confident that we would have succeeded on the evidence and on the law. However, I understand that the plaintiffs sought to settle the action and the government came to an agreement with them.”
Osborne declined to comment.
Gomez said his clients are elated.
“It’s been a torment for them for a number of years,” Gomez said.
“They’ve had their reputations sullied for pure political reasons. And these are people who were not politically active and to have the people who appointed them saying these things about them was particularly horrendous.
“The last of that administration has picked on Bahamian professionals and damaged them for no good reason other than to score political points. They’ve used the legal system and their powers and different legislation for reasons which are completely foreign to the public purposes that empowered the exercise of power and they knew this.
Gomez said: “They have accountants who have been accused falsely of what amounts to criminal offenses. They are flagged by the Securities Commission and they have to give an explanation for it. It’s something that is really, really disgusting.”
After BPL’s board collapsed in 2018, Bannister alleged he intervened in the operation of the company to prevent it from paying Osborne’s personal bills, including make-up services and the installation of a home security system. It was later revealed that the make-up services were for a BPL photoshoot and that other officials at BPL encouraged Osborne to create a home security system after another board member discussed a security incident at his home.
Bannister’s comments about Osborne were the basis of her defamation claims.
The faction that opposed Osborne – including former directors Ferron Bethel, Patrick Rollins, and Whitney Heastie – claimed in documents that the collapse of the board was fueled by petty grievances and Osborne’s ego. They portrayed her as controlling and eager to have the primary role in charting BPL’s future.
Osborne sought damages for wrongful dismissal, misfeasance, and slander.
According to court documents in 2019, the damages she sought included $240k for the salary of $60k per year for the remaining four years of her contract; $144k representing director fees of $36k per year; $48k representing director fees of $12k per year; $80k for benefit fees of $5k per quarter for the remainder of her contract; $19,200 representing gas allowance of $4800 for the four years; $57,600 for full medical insurance of $14,400 per year and nearly $150k in special damages representing the loss of income since her dismissal.
At a time when the propriety of confidential settlement agreements is prompting debate in the country, Gomez suggested he may push for the settlement award to remain confidential.
Eyewitness News exclusively revealed this year that Financial Secretary Simon Wilson, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander, and Deputy Commissioner Leamond Deleveaux have all had confidential settlement agreements.
Citing this, Free National Movement Leader Michael Pintard has said the administration is settling matters without providing a “clear explanation” to the public.
Gomez said his clients do not want their private information publicized.
“That’s the only caveat,” he said. “That is the only consideration that I would have about it.”
“This has been done for years, particularly for years with litigation of US corporate clients and stuff like that and much bigger sums than what we are talking about here.
“The reality is that the auditor general under the Financial Administration and Audit Act have access to the information but unless he finds something out of the ordinary it wouldn’t be the subject of any comment anywhere.
“And the reality is, I mean the opposition is a bit rich because they’re the ones who basically pick on ordinary citizens and abuse power and now that the state has to pay for it, they’re the ones calling for it to be made public? That don’t make sense.”
Gomez said: “Settlements are pretty much subjective in the sense that each party goes into a settlement discussion, one putting forward the highest possible amount, the other putting forward the lowest possible amount and then you have a lot of horse-trading of negotiations and parties may arrive at different figures in different negotiations based on their assessment of how strong their case is on a particular issue and that reflects then how high the reward goes.”
Press Secretary Clint Watson said yesterday that Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has not expressed a view to him on confidential agreements.
However, he noted that during debate in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Myles Laroda said security concerns are one reason for confidential settlements, saying people can become a target for would-be criminals if their awards are publicized.
