A Sangre Grande construction company has won a lawsuit against the T&T Police Service for impounding its excavator for more than a year without criminal charges being laid.
Justice Frank Seepersad, presiding in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday, said the police failed to justify why it took so long to complete an investigation while keeping the $650,000 Caterpillar excavator in impound.
Seepersad ordered that the State pay Vigai and Vijay Contracting Company Ltd compensation for loss of use of the equipment as well as other damages. Total compensation is to be assessed by a High Court Master but the company is expected to receive more that $1 million in compensation as it claimed the equipment was being rented at a daily rate of $3,000.
The company is also seeking compensation for depreciation of the equipment as it claimed it was stored in unsatisfactory conditions by the police.
The court heard that the equipment was seized on February 4, 2016, by Sangre Grande police officers who claimed it might have been stolen.
In his judgment, Seepersad noted that the company provided evidence it was the owner of the equipment while the police were unable to show what evidence, if any, their investigations had unearthed.
“There must be a reasonable balance between the constitutional right of citizens to enjoy their property and the State’s right to detain property,” he said.
Seepersad, who described the police’s action as inordinate and unreasonable, ordered that the equipment be returned within 24 hours.
A hearing for assessment of damages is set for May 15.
The company was represented by Gerald Ramdeen.
