Appellate Court dismisses petitions filed by Seylan Bank in case filed by ex-employees over Share Trust Schemes

The Civil Appellate High Court of Colombo on Tuesday dismissed six leave to appeal applications filed by Seylan Bank PLC against the orders issued by the District Court of Colombo ordering the Chairman of Seylan Bank to answer interrogatories.

A group of ex-employees of Seylan Bank filed six cases against the bank before the District Court of Colombo based on six trust deeds. The ex-employees position through these cases was that the beneficiaries of the Employee Share Trust Schemes are the employees, and that those trusts were created by the former management of Seylan Bank to provide further benefit to the employees over and above the gratuity entitlement upon their cessation of service.

The Plaintiffs of DTR 154 to 159/2016 served a set of interrogatories on the Chairman of Seylan Bank prior to trial, requesting the Chairman to answer. Pursuant to that, the defendant – the bank – vehemently objected to the interrogatories being served on its Chairman. 

However pursuant to an inquiry, the District Court of Colombo, having considered the submissions tendered by both parties, issued an order in favour of the plaintiffs compelling the Chairman of Seylan Bank to personally answer the interrogatories by way of an affidavit within 10 days of the order. 

Seylan Bank submitted six leave to appeal applications to the Civil Appellate High Court against the said orders of the District Court to answer the interrogatories, and ex parte obtained interim orders preventing the proceedings before the District Court. However, at the granting of leave stage, the ex-employees appearing through their legal team objected to the leave applications. 

The Civil Appellate High Court dismissed all six leave to appeal applications of the defendant-petitioner and ordered the bank to pay Rs. 10,000 cost per case to the plaintiff-respondents, the ex-employees. 

Accordingly, the Chairman of Seylan Bank is required to answer the interrogatories by way of an affidavit. In the event the Chairman of Seylan Bank fails to answer the interrogatories, the matter can be fixed ex-parte against Seylan Bank and they can also be held liable for Contempt of Court. 

Questions such as “whether the bank has requested the ex-employees renounce their rights to Employee Share Trusts in order to obtain their balance gratuity payment,” are included in the interrogatories which are to be answered by the Chairman of Seylan Bank.

The plaintiff-respondents, the ex-employees of Seylan Bank, were represented by Counsels Nishan Premathiratne with Pravi Karunaratne, instructed by Attorney-at-Law Sanjay Fonseka. The defendant-petitioner Seylan Bank, was represented by Counsels Romesh de Silva PC with Manjuka Fernadopulle, instructed by Attorney-at-Law Malin Rajapakse.