A High Court judge has dismissed an application by the Antigua and Barbuda Fishermen Co-Operative Society to force a rival group to hand over control of the organisation, ruling it would be unfair to make orders against people who had no notice of the proceedings.

The judge made the ruling earlier this month after the society’s 2014-elected board sought injunctions compelling the handover of keys, passwords, financial records, and bank account access from the group currently in control.

The decision is now the latest development in a governance dispute that has consumed the society for nearly a decade.

The conflict dates to 2017, when members removed then-president Leonard Mussington and treasurer Lyndon Greene from the society’s membership after finding they had joined the board of Antigua Fisheries Ltd, which the society’s constitution prohibited.

Despite being removed, Mussington and his associates refused to relinquish control of the organisation. A Special General Meeting was called in November 2017 to remove the 2014 board, electing a new board in its place. Garry Gore emerged as General Secretary of that incoming executive.

The dispute escalated through years of litigation, with Mussington’s group mounting repeated legal challenges.

In December 2022, the society’s then-current executive, led by Sir Dr Anderson Roberts as president and Garry Gore as General Secretary, reclaimed physical access to the society’s headquarters on North Street after a High Court ruling in their favour.

However, the legal battle continued as a December 2025 High Court judgment declared that the board elected at the society’s AGM in 2014 — Mussington’s board — as the lawful board.

That judgment also declared the 2017 election of Gore’s board null, void, and of no legal effect.

That ruling led to Mussington’s group applying for injunctions in February 2026 to compel Gore’s group to surrender keys, passwords, financial records, and control of the society’s bank accounts.

Mussington noted in a supporting affidavit that the Financial Services Regulatory Commission had already confirmed in January 2026 that it recognises the 2014 board and no longer recognises the 2017 group.

Gore opposed the application, maintaining that Mussington and Greene were lawfully expelled from membership in 2015 and that a Special General Meeting on February 12, 2026 had elected an entirely new board under section 90 of the Co-Operative Societies Act, superseding both competing groups.

The judge, ruling in March, said that most of the named respondents in the 2026 lawsuit were not members of either the 2017 board or the board purportedly elected in February 2026, with Gore being the only exception.

Granting the injunction would therefore mean making orders against persons who had no opportunity to be heard, which the court declined to do.

The judge also noted that the February 2026 election may have materially changed the situation, and that the validity of that election would likely need to be resolved through a separate legal claim.

The society was ordered to pay $3,000 in costs to the respondents within fourteen days.

The aspect of the December 2025 judgment dealing with decisions taken by the 2017 board during its tenure remains under appeal.

Justin Simon KC, who represented Gore’s group in the 2022 proceedings, continued to act as counsel for the respondents in the March 2026 hearing. The 2014 board was represented by Dr David Dorsett.