It was clear from the transcript of the cross-examination of the witnesses that the trial judge was alive to the relevance of the correspondence that the majority of the Court of Appeal had placed so much reliance upon: “<em>The majority substituted its own assessment of the evidence for that of the trial judge without a legitimate basis for so doing. That is impermissible</em>.”

As a result, the Board allowed Dr Rowley’s appeal and restored the findings of the trial judge.  In doing so, the Privy Council applied well-established principles of the common law and corrected the mistake the majority of the Court of Appeal had fallen into.

There is in effect a right of appeal to the Privy Council in respect of any final decisions in civil proceedings in Trinidad and Tobago.  This means litigants are able to have their cases heard by five justices of the UK Supreme Court and a good number of appellants exercise up this privilege each year.  In 2024-25, 35 cases from Trinidad and Tobago were filed, which was over half the total received from across all the jurisdictions that continue to rely on the Privy Council as the final court of appeal.

<em> </em><em>Broadfield acted as Privy Council agents for Dr Keith Rowley, on instructions from RLM &amp; Co (Trinidad).</em>