PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Wednesday ordered St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) to pay its former financial controller Emilio Kalmera three months’ salaries, as well as payment of vacation allowances. A request for damages in connection with defamation was rejected.
SMHDF’s Supervisory Board and Kalmera are at loggerheads for over a year, ever since the controller was suspended without pay by SMHDF’s Supervisory Board as per December 12, 2014.
In July, the Court found it proven that the Housing Foundation had been in default and ordered it to pay damages to the tune of NAf. 56,268 to Kalmera. SMHDF has filed for appeal against this decision, which is still pending.
Kalmera’s case was related to Managing Director Henry Lynch, who saw his service agreement with SMHDF end on February 4, based on a host of allegations concerning financial mismanagement and embezzlement.
Representing Kalmera, attorney-at-law Cindy Marica had called her client’s suspension invalid and illegal. Kalmera was appointed as financial controller as per August 1, 2012, on a three-year contract, expiring on July 31, 2015.
He was suspended pending the outcome of forensic investigations by Government Accountants Bureau SOAB into allegations of “fraud, embezzlement, violation of human-resource procedures, forgery of documents and deliberate mismanagement of funds and assets of SMHDF,” according to the foundation’s attorney Jairo Bloem in a letter of December 12, 2014.
Lynch also was suspended on the same date and was dismissed later. The case caused a lot of commotion.
In July, the Court stated that Kalmera had been confronted with “serious but up to date unfounded allegations,” which was considered a violation of the principles of a good employer. SMHDF’s statements in the media had harmed his good name and reputation. Therefore, the Court arrived at the conclusion that there was a serious breach in confidence and an unworkable employment relationship between the Housing Foundation and its management team member.
In its ruling, the Court attached much weight to the fact that the allegations and reproaches against Kalmera had been insufficiently substantiated. According to SMHDF, Kalmera must have been aware of Lynch’s actions and wrongdoings and it was held against him that he had not done anything to prevent this.
SMHDF stopped paying Kalmera’s salaries in April, based on the fact that he was working for Government. Despite repeated summonses, SMHDF failed to pay him his salaries from April 1.
In the dissolution procedure, which was handled in June, Kalmera filed a salary claim and a claim for damage compensation based on defamation. However, given the nature of a dissolution procedure he was deemed inadmissible in these claims and was referred to a regular Court procedure.
