US Judge orders New GPC to answer

KN

The New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC) case against the Kaieteur News in New York continues to crumble as the Judge this past week denied a petition to present requested documents confidentially. New GPC owned by Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, has also been ordered by the New York Court Judge to present the documents requested within 20 days.

Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop

The ruling came on Friday last by Judge Joan Kenney. New GPC was asked to, among other things, prove that as a result of the publications by this newspaper, sales to overseas clients plummeted. Lawyers for Kaieteur News asked Ray Beckerman, the lawyer for the New GPC, to set forth the names, addresses and contact information  of those customers  with whom plaintiffs relationships have been seriously injured and prejudiced as alleged. The company had alleged that since the publication of articles by Kaieteur News New GPC had lost markets internationally. Beckerman replied, “Until such time as an appropriate and sufficient confidentiality order has been entered it would be impossible to respond to this question. “Customers are apprehensive of coming forward with information because they fear being victimized and harmed by the nefarious owner and principal of Kaieteur News, Glen (sic) Lall. “Customers also worry about being denigrated in Kaieteur News…” The Kaieteur News lawyers’ next step, if GPC fails to answer this and other pertinent questions about the operations, will be to request that the Judge dismiss the case. Judge Kenny found that Ramroop’s company had been non-responsive to demands by lawyers for Kaieteur News and orders that the pharmaceutical company must comply with the conditional ruling. To many of the questions in the deposition to New GPC, lawyer Ray Beckerman, declined to answer. He has now been forced to answer the questions in the interrogatories within 20 days. Ramroop’s attempt to have the information provided confidentially was not encouraged. James Sullivan, one of the lawyers representing Kaieteur News, had objected to any confidentiality clause being applied to the case. Publisher of Kaieteur News Glenn Lall had earlier this year said that he could not help but note that everything from the government side, and now even from people closely linked to people in the government, seems to attract a confidentiality clause. New GPC had submitted to the court a claim, as though it had already proved its case. But in a preliminary ruling, Judge Kenney, pointed out that New GPC argues that it satisfied the elements of libel per se, and that Kaieteur News (KN) failed to assert the truth of its statements as an affirmative defense, thereby precluding this newspaper from raising this defense. This publication countered that New GPC must satisfy its burden of proving the falsity of the alleged defamatory statements, because it is a media defendant that made statements of public concern, and that New GPC fails to make a prima facie showing on this element of its claim. New GPC submitted the affidavit of its former Corporate Secretary, Paul Stanislaus Braam, who claims that the statements published by KN are “false, fictitious and misleading.” Braam claimed that New GPC paid less than the amounts claimed by KN. He identified specific prices that New GPC allegedly paid for certain pharmaceutical products that are significantly less than the prices paid by the Guyanese government, as reported in KN’s articles. New GPC however failed to substantiate this claim. The Judge had noted, “Braam fails to submit any documentary evidence substantiating Braam’s conclusory statements. For instance, New GPC fails to submit invoices, bank statements, or evidence of prevailing market rates for the pharmaceuticals, to support the conclusion that KNI’s statements were false. “Nor does New GPC make any showing of gross irresponsibility concerning KNI’s published statements,” Judge Kenney noted. “Accordingly, New GPC fails to make a prima facie showing,” she added. The judge said that the defamatory statements alleged by New GPC do not constitute “mere gossip” and they are not “directed only to a limited, private audience,” which would support the conclusion that they involve a “purely private concern.” “Rather, the statements involve New GPC’s alleged collusion with the Guyanese government, and the use of “taxpayer” funds to subsidize New GPC’s alleged price-gouging scheme thereby clearly relating to matters of “political, social, or other concern of the community.” The matter dealt “with a subject of public business and concern,” where it involved State funds. New GPC was to supply its various invoices, bank statements, contracts with the Guyana Government and accounts of the various drug transactions it made with the Guyana Government but it has not.