Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Four of the five recently sacked members of the Public Service Commission have taken prime minister Bruce Golding to court over the issue.

They are seeking leave to go to the Judicial Review Court to quash the the recommendation by the Prime Minister in December last year that they be fired for misbehaviour.

Dr Alfred Sangster, one of the former members of the PSC, said yesterday that he did not join in the suit because he was in agreement with the Prime Minister's recommendations for the dismissals.

The claimants to the suit are Daisy Coke, Mike Fennell, Edwin Jones and Pauline Findlay. It is their contention that under the Jamaican Constitution, they have committed no misbehaviour as the prime minister contended when he made his recommendation to Governor General Professor Kenneth Hall for them to be dismissed. They were fired by the Governor General on December 13. The suit was filed by Dennis Morrison, QC, of the law firm DunnCox.

The prime minister and the attorney general have been named as the respondents.

Filed motion

This is the second suit being filed against the prime minister arising from his recommendation in December last year. Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller first filed a motion in the Supreme Court on December 12 last year seeking an injunction to bar the Prime Minister from recommending the dismissals. The injunction was granted on December 13, but by the time the injunction was granted, the governor general had fired the PSC members hours before.

Simpson Miller subsequently obtained an injunction barring the Prime Minister from making recommendations to fill the vacancies.

However, on December 28 last year, Mr. Justice Donald McIntosh refused to grant an extension of the injunction and the new PSC members have since been appointed.Mrs. Simpson Miller is still seeking to take the matter to the Judicial Review Court and The Gleaner understands that steps are being taken for the two claims to be consolidated.

The post for a new solicitor general was advertised on Sunday to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Michael Hylton, QC, in October last year.

The former PSC members and the Government have been at odds since October last year when the PSC recommended that Professor Stephen Vasciannie be appointed the new solicitor general. The Government is in favour of former Deputy Solicitor General Douglas Leys for the job.

Deputy Solicitor General Patrick Foster, QC, is acting in the post.