Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson agreed yesterday for a consensus agreement to vacate a warrant of arrest for Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard and to allow him to return to the Bahamas to pursue his legal rights.
After listening to an address from Nygard’s lawyer, Algernon Allen, the Judge allowed both sides in the matter to produce a court order draft by June 18th and to appear in court on June 20th.
Mr. Allen went to great lengths explaining to the court Nygard’s love of the Bahamas, saying that he has invested millions in the country “mentally, financially and physically.”
The lawyer said when he was a Cabinet Minister and charged with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, as well as Social Development, and the “many applicants and supplicants came from the cultural, sporting and indigent communities, there were only two men I could call upon and send them to. They were the late Sir Durward Knowles and Peter Nygard. They never failed me and they never failed them.”
Mr. Allen assured that Nygard wants to return to the country and is not seeking to be “some rogue”, evading the administration of justice.
Attorney Fred Smith, representing Save The Bays, the organization which filed the action agsinst Nygard, said after hearing Mr. Allen, “it’s clear that we have a Saint Peter Nygard.”
Mr. Smith said he may very well be a benevolent philanthropist, but respecting the court is the bottom line.
Nygard was convicted back in March of contempt of court and fined $50,000 for breach of the Supreme Court’s order concerning illegal dredging near his property in Lyford Cay.
Nygard’s legal team, at the time disagreed with Justice Rhonda Bain’s decision, adding that while he paid the $50,000 fine before the specified deadline, he intended to appeal the ruling.
In fact, Jay Prober, Nygard’s Winnipeg-based lawyer, explained that an appeal has been filed.
The Court of Appeal has since struck that appeal down.
Back in January, the court heard claims from Attorneys that Nygard could not travel to the Bahamas to attend court as Doctors ordered him not to travel because he was ill.
However, a warrant for his arrest was issued following his failure to attend another court hearing.
Prober said Nygard, who was in Winnipeg, Canada, was too ill to travel and the warrant was unnecessary and unfair given his medical condition.
Mr. Allen told the Court yesterday that he still wishes that his client’s illness be taken into consideration as they find a solution moving forward.
