Former Magistrate Dawn Cush has contended, under Summary Jurisdiction (Magistrates) Act Cap 3:05, a local magistrate has no authority to serve summons outside Guyana and there is no ambiguity in the law on that. This issue surrounds the authority of the Guyana Police Force, who allegedly on 16th December 2023 served defendant summons on United States-based Guyanese, Rickford Burke on his premises in Brooklyn, New York.
In a letter that appeared in today’s publication Cush drew attention to Section 68 (1) of the Act which expressly states:
“All summonses, warrants, orders, judgments, writs of execution or other process or proceedings, whether civil or criminal, issued or taken by or by the authority of any magistrate respecting any matter within his jurisdiction shall have full force and effect and may be served or executed anywhere within Guyana (emphasis mine) by a bailiff of the court by the police or other constable to whom they are directed, or by any other police or other constable, as the case may be.”
The former magistrate’s response was sparked by a letter in the Sunday Chronicle, December 31, 2023 by one Robin Singh appearing under the headline, “For too long persons abroad have acted as though they are beyond our laws.”
Noting Singh’s quote of a Canadian case, Pieters v Guyana National Newspapers Limited 2020 Cam Can LI 107882 (ON SC) and advise that Guyana’s judiciary adopt the precedent soonest, Cush countered that the case was from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and one “persuasive authority but not a binding precedent.”
Further, she noted, “in the High Court case 2020-HC-DEM-CIV-FDA-568 between Msenga Jones v GECOM et al, an application for judicial review Madam Chief Justice (Ag) Roxane George stated inter alia that ‘Apart from res judicata under the common law system, applying the principle of stare decisis, I am bound to follow the decisions of the CA and ultimately the apex court, the CCJ.’”
Debunking Singh’s assertion that attorney-at-law Darren Wade and Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde “continue to defy logic and common sense in asserting that the ‘service’ of Guyanese court summons cannot be effected in the United States,” Cush countered that a magistrate is a creature of statute.
A Magistrate is a creature of statute and that is such a fundamental principle of law that one can always not think there would be any ignorance, much fewer questions about it. Unfortunately, that is not so”
Her response forms part of a growing crescendo questioning the legitimacy of the Guyana Police Force travelling to the United States to serve Burke and the Magistrate’s order to issue the summons. According to the Police, in a statement, the magistrate ordered the defendant summons be prepared and served on Burke to attend court on March 28, 2024. Burke has denied being served.
