Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner has asked prosecutors to argue a major point in the case against a Trinidadian woman accused of working at the Clay House Inn.

Natalie Noel will have to return to Magistrates' Court next Monday, January 15, to hear what is sure to be lengthy legal argument.

Noel lives in an upstairs apartment to the club with her husband who plays in the house band.

The order comes on the heels of the Island's top prosecutor admitting this week the Crown should not have dropped a charge of illegally employing a worker against nightclub operator Choy Aming.

Mr. Warner suggested that in the charge against Noel, "no evidence, not one iota, not one bit, has been presented as to who owns Clayhouse Inn''.

"I'd like to hear submissions before I make any judgment,'' he explained.

"I dare say, there is no evidence before the court with regard to who the employer was and if the appeal of (Dr. Neville) Marks (from 1988) is the standard, there must be an establishment of who the employer and employee was.

"It would seem to me that these are the type of things the court would have to know -- whether there was a legal relationship for the purposes of a contractual agreement,'' Mr. Warner added.

During Mrs. Noel's December trial Immigration Inspectors testified they saw her being pushed into a storage closet by Mr. Aming.

Immigration Inspectors claimed she admitted working for Mr. Aming but she denied this on the stand, saying she was only getting a drink for his granddaughter.

"This matter seems to loom large over my decision and I think it is fair I give you an opportunity to make submissions,'' Mr. Warner explained.

Principal Crown Counsel Dorien Taylor, who prosecuted the case, was in a trial and Crown Counsel Cindy Clarke handled the hearing.

Meanwhile Director of Public Prosecutions Khamisi Tokunbo admitted "perhaps we should not have dropped the case and left it with the Magistrate'' to decide Mr. Aming's guilt.

Mr. Tokunbo said: "It is rather unfortunate that it was dropped. Perhaps we should not have dropped the case and then left it with the magistrate to pass judgment.

"Now and then in this business (prosecuting cases) we do get conditions where an employer gets off and an employee is found guilty,'' he explained.

"We withdrew it (the case against Mr. Aming) when we should have left it with the magistrate,'' he concluded.

During Mr. Aming's trial one of the points raised by Mr. Warner had to do with the Crown's establishing whether or not he was the owner of the business.

Khamisi Tokumbo