Brunton's lawyers have written to the company demanding that their client be reinstated on the grounds that his dismissal was unjustified and wrong, claiming that CAL Chairman George Nicholas III unilaterally fired Brunton.
Read the story and related links: Brunton says his dismissal was unnecessary and an act of "viciousness"
The firm of KR Lalla and Company is teaming up with British QC Andrew Mitchell to fight CAL's case. The airline's board of directors has determined that it would not rescind the decision to fired Brunton.
In a letter dated November 1 to Brunton's attorney CAL's lawyers denied that Brunton was fired “because of any perceived or actual retaliation from a disagreement with the line minister over the purchase of a new fleet of aircraft” as claimed by Brunton.
They called Brunton's charges “wild allegations” based on “unsubstantiated reports.” The lawyers are claiming that the CAL board unanimously decided to fire Brunton in the interests of the airline and replace him with a new CEO “with different skill sets to those of Captain Brunton.”
The letter added, “It follows that there is no decision of the board that should be recanted and in any event it is clear that in the light of the allegations made by Captain Brunton...as to the approach and reasoning of the chairman and the board in the termination of Captain Brunton’s contract, that there is every basis for understanding the decision of the board.”
CAL said the full board agreed to fire Brunton in accordance with his contract of employment which requires “no finding of misconduct or failing of any sort on the part of the employee.”
The employment contract contains a clause, they noted, which permits either party to terminate the contract for two years’ service, with notice, or pay in lieu of notice, for a term or sum that amounts to a quarter of the contract period.
Brunton's attorney, Seenath Jairam, said in his letter to CAL that Brunton was “an unwitting casualty” of a disagreement between Nicholas and the line minister, Jack Warner, over the pending aircraft acquisition from ATR with Nicholas having a preference for a competing supplier, Bombardier.
CAL’s board has expressed "full support" for vice-president, commercial and customer experience, Robert Corbie, who has been appointed interim CEO. Corbie will be overseeing a newly merged workforce of 1,866 employees in Caribbean Airlines and Air Jamaica.
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