Initially, BU took the view that the Kingsland Estates court matter was not one of national importance, despite the fact that it encompassed over 1% of the total landmass of Barbados. It was, in BU’s judgement, a private, family squabble.

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However, when in 2007 a decision of the Barbados courts and the Privy Council in right of Barbados was challenged and impugned in Ontario, Canada, it became, for BU, a matter of Barbados’ national interest and importance. This was amplified when BU discovered that “the Country of Barbados” was itself sued (along with our Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Attorney General and Chief Justice, as well as 58 Bajan defendants) in the Ontario court action by a company named Nelson Barbados Group Limited, the sole officer of which was one Donald Robert Best and whose sole affiant in Canada was Bajan citizen and resident John Knox.

At that stage, having read the online campaign of “trial by blog” instituted by Barbados Free Press and Keltruth that sought to denigrate Barbados with spurious, scandalous and unsubstantiated allegations and to provide the IP addresses of commenters to Nelson Barbados, Knox, Allard and their counsel Mr McKenzie (Ontario) and Mr Shepherd QC (Barbados) BU took the decision to allow the other side of the matter to be explored on the basis that this was to be done with document-backed reports exhibiting court documents in the public domain. These documents ultimately included the client files of Nelson Barbados’ Ontario counsel that had been filed with the Ontario courts and upon which privilege had been denied by those courts. So they are in the public domain.

In the course of the Nelson Barbados litigation in Ontario, Donald Robert Best was held to be in contempt of court (as reported by BU to which it now adds the transcript of Mr Best’s committal hearing fined CDA$7,500 and sentenced to three months imprisonment. Back in 2010 when he was first found in contempt and sentenced in absentia, Mr Best fled Canada for parts unknown, in, as we see from the judgement, Asia and Australasia, but subsequently returned to Canada some 2 years later and sought, unsuccessfully, to have his criminal conviction set aside and overturned. As readers can see, Mr Best failed and went to jail.

Subsequently, Mr Best appealed. And lost.

Mr Best latest action has been against, among 39 others, Barbados’ Ontario counsel, Mr Lorne Silver, as well as many of the other counsel that had successfully opposed his previous action, as well as some of the original 58 Bajan defendants. In his latest action, the selected Bajan defendants sued by Mr Best are referred to by the Ontario courts as “Caribbean defendants”. Mr Best’s claim this time was for a mere CDA$20 million, instead of the half billion Canadian dollars he was suing for back in 2007.

For some years, Mr Best has sought to have BU remove its reports, even by way of trying to put pressure on us through WordPress. BU and WordPress have resisted these efforts. There have been subsequent attempts by parties using “Anonymouse” contact, to “try by blog” here on BU, Mr Best’s latest action. BU declined to be drawn into this tactic and moderated such incursions.

In giving the decision of the Ontario court in Mr Best’s latest action (CV-14-815-00) in which Mr Best seeks to re-litigate all the matters that he had unsuccessfully brought before the Ontario courts and Canada’s Supreme Court, Healey J. has determined that Mr Best’s action is “frivolous and vexatious”, “an abuse of process” and “without a scintilla of merit” and has dismissed it. Healey J’s decision is now published and BU here provides a copy as Best decision 1 and Best decision 2. This is the most condemnatory judgement BU has ever read and will likely have a similar echo from members of the regional legal fraternity.

In deciding costs in favour of the “Caribbean defendants” in a full indemnity basis, Healey J said:

“This is a case where Best’s conduct and its effect on the Caribbean defendants is so outrageous, reprehensible and blameworthy that it shocks the conscience of the courts and requires deterrence with costs on the highest scale.”

It will be noted that Mr Best owes almost CDA$400,000 in unpaid costs in Ontario to the “Caribbean defendants”, plus, of course, what he now owes as a result of this latest. It is also BU’s highly reliable information, that Mrs Knox is at liberty to challenge here on BU, that Mrs Knox owes several million dollars in costs in Barbados, all of which remain wholly unpaid and which has been collecting interest at an alarming rate since 2001.

Predictably, Mr Best was recently spotted as an honoured guest at Peter Allard’s Awards ceremony for international integrity in lawyers. And there he stands, photographed with the “Lieutenant-General, the Honourable Roméo Dallaire” – see Featured Image, Donald Best (l).

It is noted that Mr Alair Shepherd QC of the Barbados Bar swore an affidavit in support of Mr Best that PriceWaterhouseCoopers East Caribbean firm was not a legal entity in Barbados, a contention not accepted by the Ontario courts and one which CAIPO would certainly authoritatively dispute. That one of Her Majesty the Queen’s counsel for Barbados would swear such a document is disgraceful and fully deserving, in BU’s opinion, of Mr Shepherd being decommissioned as a queens counsel. Let him wave his botsy at judges if he wishes, but not from the Inner Bar.

BU has also been able to obtain a copy of the judgement of the Florida Court of Appeal in No. 3D14-2975 entitled Kingland Estates, Ltd,; Classic Investments, Ltd.; and Richard Cox, Appellants vs. Kathleen Davis, Marjorie Ilma Knox, and the Marjorie Ilma Knox Revocable Trust, Appellees. In essence, the action, essentially the same as the most recent Best action in Ontario was dismissed.

What dismays BU more than somewhat is the fact that Best/Nelson Barbados claim their standing to bring their action from having acquired a share of the Knox shares in Kingsland Estates Limited. How can that be, as there is a charging order against those shares and the decision of Greenidge J. of the Barbados High Court, a judgement on which all appeals are exhausted, clearly shows that the alleged transfer by Knox of her Kingsland shares was argued and that the learned judge gave a decision of fact and law in which he stated that such a transfer was fraudulent. BU has previously posted the Greenidge decision in High Court Action 2240 of 2002 in which Greenidge J. states:

“XI: I am satisfied that at the 28th November 2002 when the defendant/judgement debtor purported to transfer her beneficial interest in those shares to her children she did so upon notice that the plaintiff/judgement creditor was seeking a charging order on those said shares and her allegation that she is now a bare trustee is not proven. In my view her conduct “delayed hindered or defrauded” the plaintiff/judgement creditor: Ideal Bedding Co Ltd v Holland 1907 2 ch p 157.”

So, at the end of the day, the entire gamut Nelson Barbados/Best/Allard/Knox action that has cost millions of dollars and spans the courts of Ontario and Florida is based on a FRAUD. A fraud that, given the McKenzie files, BU has no hesitation in ascribing to Knox as financed by Allard. So beware all you recipients of the Peter Allard International Integrity Award. Mr Allard’s sense of smell is off.

Now, it is high time for the Barbados courts to make an end to this matter and the multitudinous actions pending from Mrs Knox before our courts and to look into naming Mrs Knox as a “vexatious litigant”. But for that, we need a competent chief justice to lead the justice system, not a glorified legal assistant who is himself being sued for matters that amount to gross misconduct for which he should be fired. Fired as soon as possible!!