BUSINESSMAN Steve Ferguson is again seeking to stop the state from demanding information from him and now his attorneys as it seeks to enforce a US$131 million judgment against him in Miami.

Ferguson filed the emergency application for an injunction on September 27.

It was previously assigned to Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell. She was made a judge of the Court of Appeal on the same day the application was filed, so it was reassigned to Justice Frank Seepersad.

At a hearing on October 7, Douglas Mendes, SC, asked for an adjournment. He leads a team for the state.

Mendes said when the proceedings were filed, they were served on the Solicitor General’s department of the Office of the Attorney General, but because of the AG’s conflict of interest, it was reassigned to former AG Faris Al-Rawi and would have had to be passed on to him. AG Reginald Armour was involved in the Miami matter as an attorney for another defendant, former finance minister Brian Kuei Tung, and was disqualified by the Miami court.

Mendes also said the application was similar to another filed by Ferguson, so they did not appreciate they were separate proceedings.

However, he said the new application was also “doomed to fail,” and seeks to interfere in proceedings in a foreign court.

Ferguson has complained that the state is pursuing “aggressive measures” to enforce the 2023 Miami judgment against him and two others, including making demands for the production of documents, information and the taking of depositions.

In May, he filed a similar application which Justice Nadia Kangaloo dismissed in a constitutional complaint. She is still presiding over that matter, but Ferguson has asked for her to recuse herself. She is expected to give a ruling and make a statement in that application at the end of October.

However, Ferguson intends to have the two complaints joined.

Mendes said in the other matter, Ferguson had already tried to stop the enforcement proceedings in Miami, and the state gave an undertaking not to execute judgment pending the hearing of that constitutional claim.

He said that undertaking did not prevent the state from taking available steps in preparation for execution and discovery.

“In other words, all of the other steps that one can take under Miami law would be taken, but there would not be execution.

“So in these proceedings, it occurs to me that we have to make the point immediately that this is an abuse of the process of the court.

“Certainly, this issue has already been determined by Justice Kangaloo and there is no appeal.

“But first of all, we want to put before you the necessary evidence.”

Seepersad has adjourned the matter to October 14.

In the latest complaint, Ferguson said the State is demanding information from his attorneys about legal fees to two King’s Counsel, his senior counsel in Trinidad and Tobago and other attorneys. He has until October 24 to do so.

He says if he declines to submit to a deposition, he is liable to be held in contempt of court and have his appeal of th