THE Supreme Court yesterday ordered William ‘Bill’ Clarke, the retired president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Jamaica), to vacate the company-owned home and return two high-end vehicles the bank had assigned to him.

Clarke is to leave the St Andrew home and turn over the vehicles – a BMW 7-Series motor car and an Audi Q7 SUV – by May 31, according to the ruling made by Justice Horace Marsh.

Cost was ordered in favour of the bank.

The decision comes a week after Clarke asked Marsh to make an order that the impasse between himself and the bank over his retirement package be sent to arbitration.

Clarke, who retired from the bank on November 1, 2008, also asked the court to allow him to remain in the house and keep the vehicles pending a settlement of the retirement package.

But the bank opposed Clarke’s application, noting in part, that there was no agreement between it and Clarke for the matter over the early retirement package to be taken to arbitration.

Yesterday, Marsh agreed with the bank, finding that there was no binding agreement for the matter to be taken to arbitration.

Marsh granted leave for Clarke to take the matter to the Court of Appeal.

Clarke is expected to file an appeal within the next two weeks and apply to the appellate court for a stay of execution of Marsh’s ruling.

Clarke retired from the bank after 40 years, but later took legal action against the institution after negotiations about a possible retirement package broke down.

In January, the Supreme Court granted Clarke a temporary injunction barring the bank from carrying out threats to evict him from the house by the end of that month and take away the vehicles.

Clarke, who was head of Scotiabank for 13 years until his retirement, said under the terms of the bank he was not due to retire until December 15, 2015, when he turned 65 years old.

Clarke said on July 16 last year the board of directors of the bank requested that he go on early retirement on the basis that he would be provided with a fair and equitable retirement package.

Scotia was represented by attorneys John Vassell, QC, Julianne Mais-Cox and Cindy Lightbourne of the firm Dunn Cox. Clarke was represented by attorneys Dr Lloyd Barnett, Keith Bishop and Kerry-Ann Ebanks, instructed by the law firm Bishop and Fullerton.