Government won a victory in Court today against the Ashcroft Alliance. As we've reported, Employee Trustee Dean Boyce applied for an injunction to block the sale of BTL shares, or alternately to have the money from the sale of those shares frozen in an escrow account. The request to the court was that the injunction would stand until the appeal on the constitutionality of the BTL takeover is heard.
Arguments were made weeks ago by Lois young for the Government of Belize and Godfrey Smith for the Trustee Dean Boyce.
Today, Justice of Appeal Dennis Morrison sitting as a single justice of the Court Of Appeal refused the request for an injunction.
It is a significant victory for the government which is trying to move the shares and their attorney Lois Young says it is one hurdle out of the way.
Lois Young, Attorney for Government of Belize
"The victory is very nice, very appropriate. It has eliminated one of the doubts that the public may have had and that's a very good thing for the government."
Jules Vasquez
"Is this now a sort of vindication for the government of Belize over this what it sees as a pestiferous trust which is constantly throwing hurdles in the way of BTL moving forward?"
Lois Young, Attorney for Government of Belize
"In my humble opinion, I don't think the government sees the trust as a nuisance as such. I think that what is a nuisance or what is a problem are those two trustees, Boyce and Keith Arnold who continue to say that they are the trustees of a trust, and they have absolutely no connection to the employees of BTL anymore."
Jules Vasquez
"Empirical behavior suggests that this matter will now be taken up at some other court or through some other means."
Lois Young, Attorney for Government of Belize
"I can't speak for counsel on the other side but I think that having lost the injunction application at two courts - this is not first time that Boyce has applied for an injunction, he applied for injunction in the Supreme Court and he was refused, then he brought back the application in the Court Of Appeal and said that now that the government has announced that it's going to sell the shares which the government had said from August - but he said 'we just knew about it from the 21st of September' - he brought back the application. After 2 defeats I think counsel will weigh his options very carefully."
Morrison only gave a verbal ruling today; the written decision will be handed down at a later date. Smith told us that the trustees have not decided if they will appeal this judgment. He did tell us however that they have applied for special leave to apply to the Caribbean Court of Justice to have their constitutional appeal heard. That would require leapfrogging the Belize court of appeal - which would be an almost unprecedented maneuver.
And while that is pending - another matter is arising as a claim has been filed in the Supreme Court by Glen Tillet challenging Social Security's decision to invest in BTL - on the grounds that the Chairman of the Investment Committee Nestor Vasquez and the Chairman of the Board Lois Young were not independent and impartial…
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