Robert MacRae yesterday made the application in the Royal Court case of two siblings who are suing the Health Minister for £238 million after they suffered a catalogue of sexual, physical and emotional abuse while in their family home.
At the beginning of the trial in June, both the defence – which admits the siblings should have been taken into care sooner but disputes the level of damages sought – and the plaintiffs’ counsels said they wanted a lump sum to be awarded.
However, earlier this month the court heard that the defence wanted a periodic payment order – an order that has never before been used in Jersey and allocates damages payments in set intervals rather than in a lump sum – to be imposed.
Mr MacRae has applied to the court to be able to set out why he believes the Royal Court has the power to impose such an order. ‘It is public interest for the court to hear all arguments in front of it,’ he said. ‘That includes arguments advanced in the public interest.
‘Whether or not a PPO should be awarded on the facts is a matter for the court on which I will not be expressing any views.’
He added: ‘The court has long recognised that the Attorney General has a role to advance arguments as the guardian of public interest, if it is right to do so.’
However, Advocate David Benest, representing the siblings, said that if the Attorney General was allowed to intervene it would allow Mr MacRae and defence counsel Advocate Lee Ingram to form an ‘unholy tag team’ which could be ‘a scope for injustice’.
He added: ‘I accept entirely that if there is a public interest then the Attorney General has the ability to seek to intervene.
‘What I say here is that we are not dealing with such a matter.’
Advocate Ingram told the court that he was ‘neutral’ on whether or not the Attorney General should be allowed to intervene in the case.
Commissioner Pam Scriven, presiding, is due to make a decision on whether Mr MacRae can intervene in the matter next week.
