Court dismisses motion, labelled as abuse of process

A MOTION filed to dismiss the judicial review proceeding of two suspended Juha Special Purposes Authority officials has been labelled as “an abuse of process” and dismissed.
Waigani National Court Judge Nicholas Miviri dismissed Ben Anubi Herowa’s notice of motion and ordered Herowa to pay cost of the proceeding.
Herowa deposes that there is a related court proceedings styled OS NO.8 of 2020 Ben Anubi Herowa v Peter Langa Andama and Ors of May 1 which seeks declaratory orders that the meeting resolutions passed by the authority’s board on March 10 and 26 to suspend the first and second plaintiffs as chairman and treasurer of the authority is legal and binding.
Herowa’s application was made to dismiss the judicial review proceedings (granted on July 3) on the basis that the plaintiffs, Peter Langa Andama (first) and Alex Arabia (second), had no standing and had not exhausted the internal processes and therefore amounted to an abuse of the process of court.
Justice Miviri said: “In my view, these were the basis of the grant for leave for judicial review and they have been determined and in the way pleaded, is inviting the court to tread the road it has led to the decision already made”.
“The consequence is that there is nothing before the court to determine at this stage of the proceedings by this motion by the third respondent (Herowa),” he said.