US$2.6m out-of-court settlement for coffee farmers
The joint liquidators and the Coffee Insurance Trustees have brokered an out-of-court settlement that will see coffee farmers receiving US$2.6 million of the US$3.2-million awarded to them by the Supreme Court after the collapse of Dyoll Insurance Company.
“$200,000 of the amount was not in dispute, and the farmers will get 80 per cent of the $3 million balance,” Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) told the Observer yesterday.
Director-general of the Coffee Board, Graham Dunkley, confirmed the settlement, but said he could not give any details.
“I know they have settled it, but I am not sure of the final details,” he told the Observer. “However, I am certain that the trustees have protected the interests of the coffee growers.”
Liquidators of Dyoll Insurance last year appealed the Court’s decision resulting in a delay of the payments and serious uncertainties about the outcome of the impasse.
Grant said that the joint liquidators have now filed a notice of withdrawal with the Court of Appeal regarding the discontinuation of their appeal, adding that the Coffee Insurance Trustees will now have to meet to decide the method and specific date for the payment of the funds to
the farmers.
“The trustees and the JAS will meet by the end of this week and then advise the farmers where we go from here,” the JAS president said.
The Supreme Court last year July gave local coffee farmers who suffered losses during Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, the go-ahead to access US$3.2 million as insurance benefits from the collapsed Dyoll Insurance Company.
Mr Justice Sykes stated then that the money, currently being held in escrow by German reinsurers, Munich Re, was for the sole benefit of Jamaican coffee farmers who were insured by Dyoll at the time of the hurricane.
After Dyoll filed for bankruptcy, the joint liquidators, John Lee of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Kenneth Krys of RSM Cayman Islands, insisted that the funds be shared among other former Dyoll clients, including those in the Cayman Islands.
The liquidators subsequently appealed the Supreme Court decision delaying the payment for over eight months.
“Thank God the long wait is now over and soon the coffee farmers will have their money at hand,” said a relieved Grant.
He added that the settlement could not have come about at a better time as whomever lost the legal battle could have taken it to the Privy Council.
“A long and drawn out case could see legal costs consume a substantial portion of the pay out to the farmers,” said Grant.
In mid-January, the JAS said it would ask Public Defender Earl Witter to intervene on behalf of the coffee farmers.
However, yesterday Grant said Witter was unable to intervene.
