Last night, we told you how Ernest Staine, Belize's most senior attorney, had to report to the Supreme Court that he intends to sell a few of his properties to come up with his former client's 230 thousand dollars. Well, Justice Courtney Abel has made it into a formal court order that he must sell his personal possessions to recover the money belonging to Rita McField, which he apparently spent.
The news tonight is that the ethical wrong committed against McField continues to compound because the court is unable to give her an exact day that Staine can be compelled to return her money. That's because putting a deadline is not exactly practical since it will be hard to predict the market status for the properties that he will put up for sale.
What the court has instead opted to do is to set adjourned dates for both sides to return and give updated reports. Staine's attorney will be expected to brief the court what steps have been taken since the last adjournment to sell these properties, and any progress towards collecting the sums to start accruing the total amount of what he owes to McField.
So, to simplify what all that means is that McField will not get the instant relief from the court that she ought to since, she is owed this large sum of money. Instead, she has to be patient with this attorney and with the steps that the court has set out to recover the entire amount. That is expected to be weeks or probably months.
As we reported, McField and Forward in Faith Ministries entered into land transactions in 2014 and Staine was expected to formalize the the process as attorney and the escrow agent. He we was to hold the 230 thousand dollars - proceeds of the land sales - as a mediating third party while the deal went to completion. He never did hand over the money to the real owner, and when the court compelled him to make disclosures of his finances, it revealed that he did not have the money. It appears that he spent his client's money, an action that he was not entitled to take because it was not his personal possession.
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