Coudray seeks $.65m from Muradali

San Fernando mayor Marlene Coudray has initiated legal proceedings against deputy mayor Dr Navi Muradali and is seeking $650,000 for damage to her character and reputation. Through her attorney, Vishwanath Rambarran, Coudray issued a pre-action protocol letter to Muradali, who is also the councillor for the electoral district of Les Efforts East Cipero. The letter was delivered to his secretary at his office yesterday. The legal action against Muradali stems from an article published in the T&T Guardian and its online version on October 23, 2011, in which certain allegations were made against Coudray with respect to the funding of a master of business administrative programme she was pursuing. The attorney said they were instructed that on October 26, 2011, Muradali also caused a number of defamatory words to be published in the T&T Guardian, with respect to the same issue.

 

In the letter, the attorney said inferences were capable of being drawn and in fact were drawn by readers. The pre-action letter said Coudray, before her appointment as mayor, was a public servant for 39 years, and was a high-profile figure with an unblemished record of integrity and morality in public office. It said the statements were extremely defamatory and have brought Coudray into public ridicule, odium and disrepute. “Our client’s reputation has been tarnished by these spurious allegations and she has been subjected to numerous adverse and unwarranted allegations as a result,” the letter said. Muradali has been given 14 days to respond and to undertake a number of requirements, including a payment of  $650,000; a retraction the allegations, to be circulated at Coudray’s discretion; a personal apology; and an acknowledgement that he has agreed to pay a substantial sum in libel damages to her. He is also being asked to pay legal costs.