A former police corporal who was left partially paralysed after falling down a flight of stairs will finally receive compensation after his almost decade long legal battle with the State ended in the Privy Council last week. Fazal Ghany, who was refused compensation because his injury was not included in the Protective Services (Compensation) Act, managed to convince the United Kingdom-based court that interpreting the legislation to include a wider range of injuries would not infringe the constitutional doctrine of the separation of powers.
In a 13-page judgment delivered by Sir David Jones, the court ruled that Parliament had made an error when it failed to include a provision a similar to one in Workmen’s Compensation Act, which takes into account injuries which were not contemplated at the time of drafting of the legislation. “Given the context and, in particular, the nature of the error, this insertion would be far less drastic that its size alone might suggest,” Jones said.
Jones described the legislation in its original form as irrational and totally arbitrary as he gave an example the lost of an arm attracting compensation and the loss of a lung not. “Similarly, an officer who was rendered a paraplegic would not be able to recover compensation whereas one who lost a finger would,” Jones said.
Ghany was injured while descending a flight of stairs at the Anti-Kidnapping Squad’s Couva office on December 1, 2006 and suffered a fracture of his anterior iliac spine. He was left 26 per cent permanently disabled and was forced to retire from the Police Service medically unfit. While there was no dispute that Ghany was injured while on duty and because of faulty conditions at his office, he was denied compensation as his injury did not fall within the legislation.
Ghany lost his lawsuit in the High Court and again in the Court of Appeal, where former Appellate judge Wendell Kangaloo delivered a dissenting judgment. As a result of the judgment, Ghany’s compensation claim has been remitted to the Compensation Committee of T&T for their reconsideration. Ghany was represented by Hendrikson Seunath and Kristendath Neebar, while Michael Fordham, QC, and Tom Richards appeared for the State.