At his press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow flatly stated that Government will not allow BGYEA to plant corn in the road reserve.
Well today, BGYEA won an important victory against the Government when Justice Courtney Abel discharged the ex-parte injunction against the association. So, despite the Government's declaration that they will not condone planting in the buffer zone, there is no court order stopping BGYEA from moving forward.
At today's hearing Justice Abel was expected to hear from BGYEA why the injunction should be discharged. But the case didn't even get that far, because, according to BGYEA's attorney, the Acting Solicitor General made errors when he didn't serve President Nigel Petillo with notice of the injunction. Outside the courtroom, Audrey Matura-Shepherd explained the legal foul-up to us:
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Attorney for BGYEA
"The court found that the injunction is now discontinued. It's very simple what happened, that injunction when it was issued there were specific orders that the court gave and the government gave undertakings. One of them was that they were going to serve Mr. Petillo with the order and even the application and all affidavits when they had their ex-parte hearing, ex-parte meaning without him being present. That was never served on my client, he only got the order, he never got all the other documents. The court found that rather very offensive and although Mr. Nigel Hawke is saying that yes my client got everything the judge asked him well where is the affidavit of service, any trained attorney knows that whoever goes and serves a document needs to then give an affidavit of service saying that it was served and what was served and the other party signed it. They couldn't produce that and it's simply because my client is not lying and so the other thing that happened is that the court also said we're giving you this injunction on the understanding that you're going to file by the 30th of May, a claim form stating what is the case against this gentleman. They never did that, the court said not only were you late, you were excessively late. As late as yesterday, I wrote to the solicitor general, I said you have not given us any indication that you filed this, he has not answered it yet. Now today he tells the court that it has been filed. I've never seen a copy, I've not seen it but I will wait to see when it is served."
"On those points alone, the court found that you cannot come to the court; ask the court to exercise discretion to the exclusion of the other party. You don't want to comply with your provisions and then expect the court to come and say oh go ahead everything go long. So when Mr. Hawke made an issue of the fact that the injunction would not be continued, Mr. Hawke made an issue saying that my client is acting illegally and the court warned him that the government needs to learn to act within the law and it is the government that brought my client here."
Nigel Petillo, President - BGYEA
"I am glad that the court system worked out for us. I believe Ms. Audrey have spoke about most of the matters and today we are just excited. I want to take this opportunity to go back home now and meet with our members and proceed from there as far as Harmonyville."
So, with this injunction out of the way, will BGYEA "plant di corn"? Well, President Nigel Petillo was very cagey when that question was put to him. All he would say is that he and other executive members need to consult with the general membership of Harmonyville.
Email
Print