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In August, it made headlines when the Prime Minister's brother Denys Barrow was sworn in as a resident judge of the Court Of Appeal. But just three months later, the impartiality of Justice of Appeal Barrow was called into question by Belize Electricity Limited. Barrow was one of three judges who presided over an appeal of a Supreme Court decision in which BEL lost to the Public Utilities Commission. According to BEL, the decision handed down in October, should be set aside and the matter reheard by judges that do not include Barrow because there is the appearance that Barrow may have been biased in carrying out his duties. BEL'S application against Barrow began this morning with Senior Counsel Derek Courtenay appearing for the PUC and British Queen's Counsel Vincent Nelson appearing for BEL. You may recall Nelson’s name as the attorney who usually appears in actions involving companies affiliated with Lord Ashcroft. But today he appeared for BEL – and while the lawyers waded through the preliminary objections inside the courtroom, outside, BEL'S Chief Executive Officer told Janelle Chanona why his company came to court.

Lyn Young, BEL CEO
“We took issue with the fact that Justice Barrow sat on the Court of Appeal and we are not alleging that he is biased but we just felt that there was an appearance, we didn’t feel good about it and we questioned it and our lawyers felt that he shouldn’t have sat on the case being that his son is a commissioner and all that. So there are a lot of legal arguments. Again like I said we are not alleging any bias on the part of Justice Barrow but certainly from where we sat it didn’t look good.”

Janelle Chanona,
“The appearance that justice is not being served, you are wiling to go ahead with that, you feel strong in your case?”

Lyn Young,
“Absolutely. Like I said it is a lot of legal arguments and I am not a lawyer but I tell you what I felt, when he was sitting there I didn’t feel comfortable about it. His law firm that he was a member of was representing the PUC in another matter which was still ongoing and again I am not a lawyer to know the legal ramifications of those things. For all I know, it is irrelevant but I am just saying from our position, we didn’t feel good about it and so we voiced our concern.”

We do stress that this case is not questioning whether Justice Barrow is biased. The court has to decide if a reasonable person feels there could be bias. BEL claims that Justice Barrow is listed as a member of Barrow And Company, a firm which BEL says has "an ongoing client relationship" with the PUC; Barrow's son Kimano is a Commissioner on PUC's board and that Barrow appeared "extremely opposed" to BEL'S position during the October trial. Barrow has addressed these matters at some length in a recusal statement. The case is being heard by President Elliott Mottley and Justices Boyd Carey and Manuel Sosa. The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.