Ex-Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran will go home with $5.4 million in compensatory damages.
This represents the salary and allowance he should have received from the date of his dismissal on December 23, 2015-July 16, 2017, when his tenure would have come to an end if he had not been unlawfully fired.
On Tuesday, Justice Devindra Rampersad said damages were assessed at $7,545,217.57.
However, $1,931,162.29 represented tax deductions, leaving a total of $5,470,055.28 for Rambarran. This is in addition to the $175,000 the judge previously ordered as vindicatory damages.
Rampersad said Rambarran was entitled only to what was pleaded in his case. In assessing the amount he should receive, Rampersad said he looked at Rambarran’s salary – his last was $173,435 a month – and the allowances which were not contested.
There were some claims, such as a travel grant, vacation leave and group health and life insurance, that were not sanctioned by the judge, who said Rambarran failed to provide sufficient evidence to support them.
There were other allowances such as housing and medical that the judge said were uncontested.
He gave a breakdown of the figures in a written decision. In it he was critical of the bank for failing to assist the court by giving information related to salary and perks Rambarran claimed he should receive. Rambarran was claiming entitlement to $9,968,720.25.
Instead, the judge relied on a letter which had already been provided to the court in the early stage of the case.
“...The court thought that it may have been helpful to have received the information in relation to the claimant’s compensation directly from his former employer, the CBTT, which falls within the purview of the defendant in this constitutional law matter as the titular head for claims brought against an arm of the State.”
He said the bank “ought to have been more forthright and full and frank in respect of the information and the calculations that it provided to the court since it was in the best position to do so.”
Rampersad said it was the bank that had the figures on Rambarran’s performance rating up until the date he left, but failed to provide it.
“This court, however, has a deep concern when it comes to an entity such as the CBTT, no less, which holds such a prominent position in the framework of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago failing to assist the court in a matter in which they have all of the information.
“The legal authorities which call on the State to lay all its cards on the table are a recognition of the position that the defendant holds in the legal and constitutional framework of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. That position is to preserve the Constitution and to explain, where applicable, the reasons and rationale for any breaches thereof to show the same to be reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual.”
He added, “It is not to protect himself or any state official or institution personally or to hide information
