Employee wins appeal for wrongful dismissal [1]
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - 18:39. Updated on Friday, September 26, 2014 - 03:52.
The Tonga Court of Appeal hearing for 2006 ended today August 16 at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.
The Court heard seven appeal cases during its five-days hearing from August 7-11.
Three were criminal cases, two indecent assaults on young girls, and an attempt to evade customs duties on the importation of 600 cartons of Bounty Rum. There were two land dispute cases and two civil cases, one for wrongful dismissal and one against a previous judgment dismissing the appellant...s claim for damages to a motor vehicle.
Appeals upheld
The Court of Appeal upheld the wrongful dismissal appeal that was brought by Siosiua Fonua against former employer Tonga Communications Corporation.
The court also upheld the appeal by Tevita Tukuafu, a land-owner from the village of Kanokupolu who prayed for the court to order for Sione Tu...alau Latu to deliver up the possession of land to him. The Court of Appeal ordered the respondent do this before November 15, 2006.
Appeals denied
Both indecent assault cases involved young girls aged 12 years and younger.
A man named Kaluseti Li was convicted earlier on March 17, 2006 of four counts of attempting to have carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 12 and four counts of indecent assault charges. He during this court of appeal sitting appealed against his conviction and sentence.
Kaluseti was sentenced by Chief Justice Webster on April 7, 2006 to six years imprisonment on each count of attempting to have carnal knowledge of the girl and four years imprisonment on each count of indecent assault on a child where he was to serve concurrently and backdated to March 17, 2006.
The Court of Appeal told the court that the ground of the appeal was not made out and the sentences that Webster imposed were not excessive because he took into account mitigation factors including the fact that he had no prior convictions for sexual offences. Therefore the appeal was dismissed.
In the second indecent assault case it involved a man in his mid-fifties Sosefo Malu Kolo, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for two indecent assault offences of a 12 year old girl. He too also appealed against the severity of the sentences imposed.
Sosefo pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced on each count to one-year imprisonment, which he was to serve consecutively, and the final six months to be suspended from date of release where he will be on probation.
The Court of Appeal told the court that the events of the two offences took place some four to five months apart, the first time in May 2003 and on October of the same year. During that period the complainant was only 12 years old and was attending a local primary school.
Sosefo became known to the girl through several occasions in which he gave her money at his home, where he then repeatedly committed the offences to the young girl.
The Court of Appeal told the court that the judge in this case pointed out that these offences must be seen as the deliberate and premeditated actions of a mature man taking advantage of a young girl.
...And to deter this appellant and others from the sort of conduct and protect young girls from predatory behavior were important objects of a sentence for such a crime....
The Court of Appeal then ruled that the term of two years, particularly with the final two six months suspended was not excessive, and dismissed Sosefo...s appeal.