Can the Sugar Industry Control Board order BSI to open the factory and start milling cane? Audrey Matura Shepherd thinks it can - and that, in the present circumstances it must.
Government and its Chairman Gabriel Martinez say the opposite: they say the SICB can only declare the season open after it consults with both sides and gets agreement on a date for the start of the crop.
So today, veteran cane farmer Lucilo Teck and executives of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association went to ask the court to intervene and command the SICB to do what they feel is its duty: declare the season open and make it so. They're asking for a writ of mandamus, a court order which would compel the SICB to act.
But, first, they must have a hearing to ask the court for permission to apply for mandamus.
That happened today before Justice Shona Griffith, with a gaggle of attorneys in tow: Audrey Matura-Shepherd and Anthony Sylvestre as the attorneys for Lucilo Teck; Michael Young for BSI/ASR; Rodwell Williams for SICB, Eamon Courtenay for the BSCFA; and Deputy Solicitor General Nigel Hawk for the Government of Belize.
After much back and forth, Justice Griffith granted leave for the claimants to bring the Mandamus application. The only problem is that it cannot be heard until February 23rd - and by then, surely, half the cane season will have been lost.
So it's a victory, but one that may whose practical application is in question.
Seven News was outside of court when the attorneys exited, and we got reaction from all sides:
Rodwell Williams, attorney
"The judge decided that she would nevertheless grant the permission to bring what we considered to be an irretrievable flawed fix date claim and judge can do that."
Michael Young - Attorney, BSI
"Well it's not that the papers were inappropriately filed. Our position is that the wrong papers were filed and I think that there was not much of a disagreement on their part and the court recognized that the papers in the way that they were prepared and filed were not correct. Our position was that you need to formulate your case properly and file it before the court can even have jurisdiction to entertain what you are seeking to have. The court looked `at the intent and substance of the documents that were filed and took the position that indeed there was an application before the court for permission to file judicial review."
Daniel Ortiz
"You reject the conclusion that the judge bailed out te claimants today?"
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, attorney for Lucilo Teck
"No. You see in law there are discretions that the courts are given. In the old days under strict common law process there were only one way that you can do things and one error or anything like that would therefore mean that you can't move ahead. But the law change over centuries. It has evolved and so a lot of this question is given to a judge under the inherent jurisdiction. The 2005 civil procedure rule was intended to ease any blow, so that claimants like my claimant who are people suffering hardship - my claimant is a single farmer who has a lot to lose is not then rejected by the court by a technicality and you notice we were citing different rules because there are provisions to cushion any technical mishap."
The court has attempted to expedite the hearing of this case, but the earliest date that it will be argued is on February 23. That's more than 6 weeks away; and that's still not including the time it will take for the judge to deliberate and return a decision...,meaning that it would be some time before the SICB would be compelled to act if they are successful.
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