A New York-based widow is seeking repayment of $147,975.57 from the Port of Spain-based attorney who negotiated the sale of her late husband’s property at East Dry River.
Sadiyya Abdul-Karim is threatening to take the attorney to court again to get her money.
The court had already ordered the attorney, who was also a family friend, to repay the proceeds of the sale to Abdul-Karim in 2020. He failed to do so.
On March 1, Abdul-Karim’s new attorney, Brent Winter, told the owing attorney a memorandum of the court’s 2020 judgment was registered with the Registrar General’s department on January 22, and he was now called to liquidate the judgment debt or propose an appropriate payment schedule.
Winter said he had firm instructions, if the attorney failed to respond, to start enforcement proceedings in the High Court to ensure payment of the judgment debt. He is hoping good sense will prevail.
In the 2020 court action, the attorney was accused of unjustly enriching himself with his client’s money. Abdul-Karim received default judgment when he failed to defend the claim.
The widow said he agreed to negotiate the sale of a property her husband owned at St John Street, East Dry River. The claim said the lawyer agreed to deposit the proceeds into the widow’s bank account.
The property was sold in June 2019, and the lawyer received $140,000, but did not make the deposit.
The claim said despite multiple promises, the lawyer, without lawful excuse, failed to deposit the money and has wrongly retained it for his own use and benefit.
The widow said when the sale was completed and the money was paid, she demanded payment in July 2019, and sent her Trinidad and Tobago account number to the attorney.
He said he would make the deposit soon but he never did. In October, she sent him another message and he phoned her asking for further time.
In November and December, she repeatedly messaged but received no responses and the claim said, “He failed to deposit any monies to her account as promised. The situation persisted for several months and on May 16, 2020, the claimant sent the defendant another text message in which she quoted religious material urging the defendant to repent his sin.”
He responded, asked for forgiveness and said he deeply regretted his “misstep,” and expected to be able to pay before the end of August 2020.
A month later, she sent him a pre-action protocol letter. The claim said the attorney, in a WhatsApp response, said he expected the matter to be settled before year’s end.
The widow’s claim said she viewed this response as “insincere” because of his “numerous broken promises in the past,” and has had to wait more than 16 months for money rightfully owed to her.
She was awarded judgment in default and interest was added to the principal sum owed.
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