HOW DOES RANDY BUTLER LOSE BY DEFAULT?

So Fred Kaiser, the foreign investor who seems to have bankrolled, the bankrupt and defunct airline Sky Bahamas has now had the default judgement for 28 million dollars affirmed by a Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court and there is now an order for assessment of damages.  You have to ask yourself the question how a sophisticated and wealthy businessman like Randy Butler, who was Chief of Sky, could get himself in hock for a judgment in default of 28 million dollars.  The Deputy Registrar Carol Misiewjcz seemed in her judgment reported in the press on 23 April 2021 to make a mockery of his case. She said that Mr. Butler had twice waited until the last minute to file a defence and after the last time, the judgment was entered; even that was three days after his counsel Michael Horton had a chat to ask for another extension with Michael Scott the Q C on the other side.  Mr. Butler was either badly served himself or  his lawyer badly served him.  Some elementary legal mistakes seemed to have been made quite apart from the tardiness. A bush lawyer would know that if you are not ready to file a full defence. you file a holding defence. There should have been a  third party notice served on Peter Turnquest since the  nub of the case has to be that it was Peter Turnquest, the now fired Deputy Prime Minister, was the one who handled all the company’s affairs. Then it is elementary in seeking to set aside a default judgment, you ought to put up an arguable defence in your affidavit and as a matter of practice, attach the draft defence to the affidavit.  None of that was done.  Notwithstanding that however, the Deputy Registrar almost certainly erred in law in not allowing the case to go forward. The matter should almost certainly be a reviewed by a Supreme Court Judge.  You cannot have something of that huge a stature sustained by a technical flaw by the defendants.  They should have their day in court. Despite the negligence of the client or default of the attorney, the court should allow the case to proceed by trial and the facts should be revealed. This default judgment would be an  injustice.