Full Court Clears Way for Opposition Members’ Lawsuit Against Demerara Bank

By |Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – In a landmark split decision delivered on Thursday, the Full Court dismissed an appeal by Demerara Bank Limited, paving the way for six members of the opposition party, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), to sue the institution over the unexplained closure of their bank accounts.

The panel, consisting of Chief Justice Navindra Singh, Justice Deborah Kumar-Chetty, and Justice Nigel Niles, ruled that the bank must now move to a substantive hearing rather than attempting to strike out the proceedings. The court further penalized the bank for the delay, ordering it to pay $100,000 in costs to each of the six claimants by June 1.

The Core of the Dispute

The legal battle began after former account holders Gobin Harbajhan, Denodra Park, Dexter George, Joel Ramesh, Lester Benjamin, and Denitta Parkes had their accounts abruptly terminated without explanation. Represented by attorney Darren Wade, the claimants argue that the bank breached implicit duties of fairness and good faith inherent in the banking relationship.

Demerara Bank, represented by a legal team including Devindra Kissoon, Natasha Vieira, and Abhimanyu Dev, sought to have the case thrown out. Their defense rested on three primary arguments:

• The legal action disclosed no reasonable cause of action.
• The bank maintains no “duty of good faith” when choosing to close customer accounts.
• No private right of action exists under current Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws for such disputes.

A Split Ruling

The majority of the court found that Demerara Bank failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the lawsuit was “frivolous, vexatious, or an abuse of the court process.” The justices noted that the bank’s tactical approach had “unnecessarily delayed” the matter and that the claimants presented an arguable case that deserves to be heard on its merits.

In a dissenting opinion, however, Chief Justice Navindra Singh argued that the claimants failed to establish a solid contractual foundation for their claims. The Chief Justice maintained that the pleadings did not disclose a viable cause of action and suggested the applications should have been struck out in favor of the bank.

Next Steps

Despite the Chief Justice’s dissent, the majority ruling stands. Demerara Bank Limited has been ordered to file its affidavit in defense on or before May 21, 2026.

The case is being closely watched by the financial and legal sectors, as the final ruling could set a significant precedent regarding the rights of Guyanese citizens to maintain banking services and the level of transparency required by private financial institutions.