A former magistrate accused of insubordination did not have a right to a hearing prior to her 2011 interdiction from duty, an appeals court ruled Friday, prompting Charmaine Rosan-Bunbury to vow to appeal the decision to the Virgin Islands’ highest court.
Shortly after being interdicted, Ms. Rosan-Bunbury sued Governor Boyd McCleary, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission and several other officials, asking that a judge undertake a judicial review of the decision to place her on leave.
But High Court Justice Wesley James denied the request for review in December 2011, asserting that Ms. Rosan-Bunbury’s claims had an “unrealistic prospect of success.”
Ms. Rosan-Bunbury appealed, but last week a three-judge panel of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal upheld Mr. James’ ruling.
Justice Ola Mae Edwards read aloud the court’s judgment Friday, asserting that the former magistrate’s arguments that judicial review was unfairly denied had “no merit.”
After the judgment was read, Ms. Rosan-Bunbury rose to her feet to make an application to the court for permission to lodge a final appeal to the territory’s highest court, the Privy Council.
But Justice Davison Baptiste, who led the panel of three appeals court judges, told the former magistrate that she would have to make the application in writing, adding that the request would be considered by the Court of Appeal at a future sitting.
See the Sept. 26, 2013 edition for full coverage.