The Supreme Court has ordered the Government to pay a Westmoreland woman over $11 million after it found that immigration authorities violated her constitutional rights when they took her off an outgoing flight in Kingston and confiscated her passport for more than seven months.

Jacqueline Dahlia Thompson was awarded $6 million in compensatory damages and $5 million for vindicatory damages after the court concluded, at the end of her lawsuit, that a number of her constitutional rights were breached by the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) during and after the November 2024 incident.

Vindicatory damages are typically awarded by the courts to underscore the gravity of a breach of a citizen’s fundamental constitutional rights.

Thompson, who was heading to Mexico for medical treatment at the time she was removed from the flight, was also awarded special damages of US$2,762 to recoup out-of-pocket losses for airline ticket and hotel accommodation.

The Attorney General’s Department (AGD), which represented PICA, did not file a defence explaining why Thompson’s passport was confiscated and held for approximately 230 days before it was returned.

The AGD, however, filed legal arguments asking the court to adopt the approach taken in a similar case decided in 2023 and award Thompson “nominal damages” of $1.5 million for breaches of her right to due process, the right to leave Jamaica and the right not to be deprived of a passport.

“In the absence of a defense from the defendants [PICA], it can be concluded that breaches of the right to be granted a passport and not to be denied or deprived thereof, the right to leave Jamaica and the right to due process of law have been engaged,” an attorney from the AGD acknowledged in the filing obtained by Reporters.

Justice Lisa Palmer Hamilton found, in a ruling delivered on Thursday, that confiscating the passport on November 15, 2024 and keeping it until July 3, 2025 without a hearing, a formal charge against Thompson or “a clear explanation” breached a number of constitutional provisions.

The right to equitable and humane treatment by a public authority in the exercise of its functions, the right to due process of law, the right to hold a passport and to travel outside Jamaica were among the provisions cited.

Thompson claimed, in her lawsuit filed by attorneys Peter Champagnie, King’s Counsel, and Neco Pagan, that on November 15, 2024 she was on board an Arajet flight destined for Mexico where she was scheduled to undergo a medical procedure.

However, the businesswoman, who lived overseas and recently relocated to Jamaica, said she was removed from the plane by immigration officers in what she described as “embarrassing and humiliating” circumstances.

The passport was seized by an immigration field officer who directed her to visit PICA’s head office on Constant Spring Road, in St Andrew.

Thompson claimed that during a visit three days later, she was interviewed by the same field officer who explained that “a photograph said to resemble her had been used on some earlier passport application”.

The businesswoman said she immediately and “unequivocally” denied any knowledge of such applications and explained that all her prior passport renewals were processed through the Jamaican Consulate in New York City.

She noted that no criminal charges were filed against her arising from the allegation made by the immigration field officer, but still her passport was not returned even after two letters from her attorneys.

The passport was returned on July 3 last year after the lawsuit was filed.

However five days later, immigration officers again removed Thompson from an outgoing flight at the Norman Manley International Airport, the lawsuit claims.

She was allowed back on the plane after her attorneys contacted PICA’s legal office.