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Anand Beharrylal - Successful Privy Council Appeal

Dorren Rambharose v Richard Bovell 

Anand Beharrylal appeared for the successful appellant in the Privy Council Appeal of Ms DR (Appellant) v Mr RB (Respondent).

On or about 23rd May 1993 a herd of cattle pushed Ms DR's car off the road causing her injury. About two weeks later she returned to the location of the accident and made enquiries as to who was the owner of and responsible for the cattle. She was directed to Bovell who confirmed ownership and responsibility for the cattle. In reliance upon this representation Mr DR sued Mr RB for negligence.

The matter came on for trial before Mr Justice Rajendra Narine sitting in the Trinidad and Tobago High Court. During the trial Mr RB relied on the fact that the legal owner was in fact a company [CB Ltd] and that in effect Ms DR had sued the wrong person. Ms DR countered this assertion by relying upon Estoppel by Representation of Fact to the effect that she had relied on Mr RB's answer as to ownership of and responsibility for the cattle and had now lost her right to sue CB Ltd since the limitation period had expired. Mr Justice Narine after hearing evidence found in favour of Ms DR essentially on the basis that Mr RB had admitted ownership and responsibility for the cattle.

Mr RB appealed to the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal which was heard by Justices of Appeal Mendonca, Kangaloo and Archie (now Chief Justice Archie). Justice of Appeal Mendonca delivering the judgment of the Court allowed the appeal essentially on the basis that the representation as to ownership was equivocal when viewed in light of two documents namely a letter dated 11th January 1995 and a release form dated 27th August 1993 both of which referred to the company, CB Ltd.

Ms DR appealed to the Privy Council. Lord Scott of Foscote delivered the judgment of the Board. In addressing the specific relevance of the aforementioned two documents his Lordship stated at paragraph 12 "In their Lordships' respectful opinion, these references, in documents which post-dated by many months the occasion on which the critical representation had been made, do not begin to cast doubt on the judge's critical finding of fact. The respondent was the manager of the farm to which the cattle belonged and their Lordships can imagine nothing more natural than that the manager, when told of the accident caused by animals for which he was responsible, should accept responsibility."

At paragraph 14 his Lordship further stated "It is, in their Lordships' opinion, highly debatable whether the references to the company CB Ltd as the entity insured by NEM was a sufficiently clear statement that CB Ltd, not the respondent, was the owner of the cattle so as to render unreasonable any subsequent reliance by the appellant on the respondent's representation that he was the owner, but the concentration on ownership of the cattle misses the point. What is important is not ownership of the cattle but responsibility for the cattle. If CB Ltd had provided the respondent with a car for his personal and his business use, and the respondent by negligent driving had caused an accident, CB Ltd, the respondent's employer, would have been vicariously liable if the respondent had been using the car for his business purposes but not if the respondent had been going out to dinner with his wife. In both cases, however, the respondent would have been personally liable and could not have escaped personal liability by pointing out that the car belonged to CB Ltd. The identity of the owner of the car would be irrelevant."

The Privy Council allowed the appeal with costs and restored the judgment of Mr Justice Narine.

Neil Bisnath, senior advocate attorney from Trinidad and Tobago, appeared for the Respondent Mr RB.

The full judgment (cited [2009] UKPC 7) can be viewed on the Privy Council's website. To download the Judgement from the Privy Council please click here. 

For further information:

• Privy Council rules in favour of mom injured by cows - Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday

26 February 2009

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