The Court of Appeal has refused National Commercial Bank’s (NCB) application for conditional leave to apply to the United Kingdom Privy Council in a matter involving one of its senior employees, which was handed down by the said Court of Appeal on May 6 this year.

The bank had sought to have the matter heard by the Privy Council, following decisions handed down by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT), the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeal in respect of the unfair dismissal of Assistant General Manager Peter Jennings four years ago.

Jennings had sued the bank when his services were chopped after over 33 years as a member of staff, many of them served in senior positions.

The Court of Appeal, which heard the matter on September 26, October 10, and November 11, agreed unanimously that there was no need for the matter to be heard by the Privy Council, which now paves the way for Jennings to be compensated.

The original ruling by the IDT was for Jennings to have his job back with all entitlements, or be paid 220 weeks’ salary at the current rate should he choose not to be reinstated.

Appeal Court President Dennis Morrison and judges Paulette Williams and Marva McDonald Bishop, heard the latest matter.

“The application for conditional leave to appeal to Her Majesty in Council is refused. The applicant shall have 14 days from the date of this order to submit in writing why costs should not follow the event. If no such submissions are received, then the applicant shall pay the second respondent’s costs of this application, to be taxed if not sooner agreed,” Justice Morrison wrote in the 44-point decision.

It marked the fourth-straight time that NCB was suffering defeat in the matter.

Jennings was fired by NCB on November 19, 2012. He took the matter to the IDT which, after 33 sittings, ruled that he was unfairly dismissed and ordered reinstated, or compensated for the time he has been away from the organisation. At the time of his dismissal he was earning an annual salary of approximately $10 million.

Jennings, who was the assistant general manager — the highest level of a bank manager — of the St James Street, Montego Bay, operation and, before that, manager of the May Pen branch, was fingered by the NCB management as having approved eight loans which were described as “delinquent” or “non-performing”, which the institution said resulted in losses.

The bank claimed that Jennings approved the loans, amounting to a total of $48.5 million, without doing proper due diligence and was found to be “grossly negligent” in how he went about his duties.

Jennings, in his defence before the IDT, led by veteran Attorney-at-Law Gordon Robinson, told the tribunal that at a number of the bank’s branches that he managed, his performance was regarded by the institution as one of “phenomenal success in making profits for the bank”, highlighted, he said, by the financial gains made at the Spanish Town, May Pen, and St James Street branches, while he managed them.

The IDT, comprised of Norman Wright, QC, who served as chairman; Rion Hall; and D Trevor McNish called the termination of Jennings’ employment “unjustified” and ruled in his favour on April 28, 2015.

However, NCB took the matter to the Supreme Court, and Judge Bryan Sykes, who heard the matter in chambers, sided with the ruling of the IDT. The bank later went to the Court of Appeal, but that was also rejected in May this year. Court of Appeal justices Patrick Brooks, Almarie Sinclair-Haynes and Paulette Williams, gave numerous examples of how the bank had erred in its treatment of Jennings. That led the institution to seek leave to apply to the Privy Council.

Douglas Leys, QC, Douglas Thompson and Kenita Brissett represented Jennings, while Gavin Goffe and Adrian Cotterell, instructed by Myers Fletcher and Gordon, appeared for NCB.

It was not clear how soon Jennings would move to enforce the order.

The attorney general opted against appearing for first respondent, the IDT, as the organisation took no position on the application for conditional leave to appeal.

NCB is Jamaica’s largest bank. Bank officials told shareholders at a recent meeting that the institution had recorded profit exceeding $14 billion for its last fiscal year.