Johnson v Gilead

• Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda
• Court: High Court (Antigua)
• Judge: Bishop, J.
• Judgment Date: 28 March 1980
• Neutral Citation: AG 1980 HC 6
• Docket Number: 157 of 1979
• Date: 28 March 1980

High Court

Bishop, J.

157 of 1979

Johnson

and

Gilead

Appearances:

Gerald A. Watt for the plaintiff.

Henson E. Stevens for the defendant.

Damages - Assault and battery — Plaintiff claimed damages for unlawful assault and battery — Whether defendant acted in self-defence or injuries sustained by plaintiff were merely accidental — Judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $818.20 with costs.

Bishop, J.

1 Jennifer Johnson of Swetes has claimed damages in the court of summary jurisdiction from Lemuel Gilead of Liberta Village, for unlawful assault and battery on her on the 7th July, 1978. She has alleged that the defendant struck her with the door of a bus and pushed her over a bridge, thereby causing her injury, pain and loss.

2 Lemuel Gilead did not deny that the plaintiff was hit by the door of his bus, or that she fell over a bridge and sustained injuries, but he has alleged that she did not receive the blow from the door, nor was she pushed over the bridge in the way that she has explained to the court. As I understood it, he has sought to contend that she was accidentally struck by the door and that he was acting in self defence when he pushed her and she fell over a bridge.

3 Each of the parties to the action gave evidence and called a witness. I have analysed all of the testimony and in the final analysis I have concluded that the following facts probably represent the truth.

4 On the date in question, be it 6th or 7th July, 1978, there was a fete and dance in Liberta Village, which Jennifer Johnson went to with her girlfriend. Around 10:05 p.m. Jennifer Johnson left and went outside where the defendant's bus was parked. She asked the defendant to take her home but he refused to do so and indeed he asked her to get out of the bus. Now Jennifer Johnson and Lemuel Gilead had been lovers for about two years, but from at least a month or so before 7th July, 1978, whereas Gilead had no doubt that this relationship had ceased to exist, Johnson still regarded it as thriving or refused to accept that it had died.

5 When the plaintiff spoke to the defendant in the bus, there were two others also seated inside — Yville Hector and her teenage sister. Yville Hector taunted Jennifer Johnson when Gilead refused to take her home and asked her to leave the bus. She taunted the plaintiff that the defendant was not in love with her, and certainly it would seem from the taunts and the subsequent conduct of the defendant, that his relationship with Yville Hector was greater than casual.

6 A quarrel developed between the plaintiff and Hector and Gilead made it clear then that he was taking the side of Hector. Indeed, according to Johnson, Gilead warned her of the consequences if she struck Hector, and he ordered her to get out of the bus. She refused to do so and the defendant drove to Liberta Police Station with the plaintiff, Yville Hector and her sister as passengers.

7 At the police station the defendant complained to Corporal Joseph and told him that he wanted the plaintiff put out of the bus. The corporal advised Gilead to take steps to put her out himself and assured him that if she resisted or beat Gilead then the police would intervene. Gilead did not set upon the advice but he drove the bus to...