SVG govt to appeal vaccine mandate lawsuit
Vincentians taxpayers are set to foot another hefty legal bill as the St. Vincent government will appeal the judgement handed down on Monday in which public servants who challenged the vaccine mandate of 2021 secured victory.
On Monday, Judge Esco Henry ruled, among other things, that the cessation of public servant obligations under the government’s vaccination mandate was unconstitutional and illegitimate.
The judge found that the decision to deem the public servants to have resigned without giving them an opportunity to be heard was ultra vires, procedurally improper, and contrary to the rules of natural justice, and issued certiorari to quash the decisions of the minister, commissioner of police, public service commission, and police service commission, ruling that the public servants never left their jobs.
Lawyer Anthony Astaphan, part of the government’s legal team in the vaccine mandate case, said while the government’s legal team respects the right of the court and the high court of justice to deliver judgment, they believe they have a corresponding duty, if not an obligation, to review the reasons advanced by the learned trial judge and to advise the government on whether there is any merit in an appeal or whether or not the public interest demands that there be an appeal because of the critical constitutional issues and issues of law.
Astaphan says that the rules for determination, which he believes will inevitably rise again whenever one of these countries, including Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is confronted by another crisis such as the COVID-19 crisis that we experienced for the last 2 or 3 years,
“The legal team has advised the government that they believe that there is considerable merit in an appeal, and we have also advised the government that in the public interest it is required”.
“An appeal is required for the very simple reason that the government needs to know and to have the guidance of a higher court on what needs to be done or should be done and which ought not to be done when the government, the executive branch of the government, and the cabinet are confronted with a crisis like an infectious disease that kills and hospitalizes its citizens, to say the least”.
“On the aforementioned, the legal team has advised the government, and the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has accepted our advice and instructed us to proceed. We intend, by Wednesday at the latest, to file a notice of appeal and an application for stay of execution of the judgment so that we can proceed with an appeal as soon as possible”.
Astaphan stated that this case arose because the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines took measures to protect the health of public servants based on the medical advice of the chief medical officer, which, as far as he recalled, was uncontradicted during the trial.
The Senior Counsel said based on the number of calls the legal team has received from the Caribbean, others, or people wondering whether the learned trial judge is right.
“We believe that she is not, and we have advised the government to exercise its constitutional right of appeal”, Astapn said.
