The Supreme Court has struck out a claim by executors of the late hotel mogul Gordon "Butch" Stewart’s estate seeking a "red flag" audit of several companies, ruling they lacked legal standing to bring the case.
The decision, announced orally on March 26 by Justice Cresencia Brown Beckford and released in writing Wednesday, blocks an attempt by the executors to carry out a red-flag audit of Gorstew Limited, Appliance Traders Limited and their subsidiaries.
In 2024, the executors had sought court authorisation to carry out an urgent audit of the companies, citing serious concerns about how the companies had been run since Stewart's death on January 4, 2021.
The executors are Trevor Patterson, Cheryl Hamersmith-Stewart, Elizabeth "Betty Joe" Desnoes, and Martin Veira. Hamersmith-Stewart is Butch’s common-law widow.
Adam Stewart, the Sandals hotels boss who took over from his father, applied to the court for the case to be struck out. He rejected their claims and argued that their case was an abuse of the process and should be struck out as executors did not have authority under the Trusts Act to bring the claim.
