Regional energy company West Indies Petroleum Limited (WIPL) and its founding directors, Gerald Charles Chambers, Tarik Felix and Gordon Shirley, registered a major win in the Supreme Court in Kingston when Justice David Batts threw out a claim filed against them by former directors, Courtney Wilkinson and John Levy, last week.

Batts also ordered Wilkinson and Levy, who remain shareholders in WIPL, to pay the legal costs.

In March, Wilkinson and Levy, who were removed as WIPL directors a month earlier following what the company described as a difference of opinion about its future direction, had asked the court to declare that Chambers, Felix and Shirley were conducting the company’s affairs in a manner that is prejudicial to their interest.

Lawyers representing the two had also asked the court to declare that Felix and Shirley had acted in a manner which facilitated WIPL and Chambers, who is the company’s CEO, to act in a manner which disregarded their interests.

The former WIPL directors had also asked the court to order the removal of Felix and Chambers from the board of the energy company.

The court was also asked by Wilkinson and Levy to order that “independent directors” be appointed to WIPL’s board and a shareholder’s agreement be set up.

WIPL and its directors denied the allegations made by its former directors.

In their response, Felix, Shirley and Chambers argued that the CEO has always acted in the best interest of the company and has leveraged his expertise to generate significant revenues for WIPL.

Attorneys for Chambers pointed out that apart from 2020, WIPL’s revenues had grown by 100 per cent during every single year of Chambers’ leadership.

In further responding to the claim filed by the former directors, Chambers’ lawyers also highlighted a forensic cyber probe which suggested that there was culpability on the part of the claimants in unauthorised access to the electronic communication of two of WIPL’s founding directors.

The attorneys for Chambers further argued that Levy and Wilkinson had acted in bad faith by setting up a company which competes with WIPL, despite them remaining among its shareholders.

They further insisted that there was no basis for Chambers or Felix to be removed as board directors.

In his ruling Justice Batts said that there’s no credible basis for the Supreme Court to grant the multiple declarations and orders both men had sought.

The claim form and amended particulars of claim filed by Mayhew Law for the former directors were therefore struck out.

Queen’s Counsel Symone Mayhew and Ashley Mair acted on behalf of Wilkinson and Levy who were given permission to appeal.

Former attorney general, Queen’s Counsel (QC) Ransford Braham and Carissa Mears, who were instructed by Braham Law, represented Chambers, while Annaliesa Lindsay, instructed by Lindsay Law, represented West Indies Petroleum (St Lucia).

Georgia Gibson Henlin, QC, Shavaniese Arnold and Peta-Shea Dawkins instructed by Henlin Gibson Henlin acted on behalf of West Indies Petroleum, while Shirley and Felix were represented by Seyon Hanson, who was instructed by the law firm, Beecher, Bravo, Hanson & Associates.

West Indies Petroleum was formed approximately nine years ago as a special-purpose vehicle to enter the ship bunkering business in the Caribbean and Latin American region. The entity has since expanded and developed into one of the region’s leading energy companies.