So, while that was the first round of fights over the Sunshine, what do these attorneys see as the real issues that the court will have to decide on?
We asked both sides to summarize their case, and why they think they will win. Here’s how they explained it:
Rodwell Williams, SC - Attorney for Sunshine
“Pending before the court were 2 applications 1 by the claimant, Sunshine, to continue the freeze, and for an ancillary order to the freeze, and one by my friends to strike out the claim and He proceeded with the hearing of the application to strike out the claim because if the claim is struck out, then there would be nothing left to discuss about freezing. Mr. Courtenay began his arguments and the court - we had some discussion, and it was felt that in my view, my view, that it was bound to fail, and the court indicated that there was sufficient merit that it should go to trial on the merits. So, rather than expend, time, energy, and money on preliminary issues, we have decided an early trial date. So, we have early trial on the merit. In the meantime, the freeze remains to abide the outcome."
Eamon Courtenay, SC - Attorney for Employees Trust
"The Government has compensated the BTL Employees Trust, in respect of the shares that it acquired. Belizeans should now - and in particularly, the employees of BTL should know that a trust is in existence, is established for the benefit of those employees. They owned about 11 million shares in BTL, which the Government acquired, and this whole fight for 7 or 8 years has been over how much compensation they are to get. That compensation has now been paid to Trust. Lo’ and behold, to our surprise, Sunshine, under the control of Sir Manuel Esquivel and Mr. Net Vasquez, are seeking to get that money. It's about 10 million dollars that is being held for the benefit of the employees of Telemedia. They are trying to get it. They are trying to get it in order to pay 2 loans, a loan that was made by the Government of Belize to Sunshine, and a loan that was made by the Social Security Board to Sunshine. The difficulty with that is, of course, as everyone has seen, in the settlement agreement, the Government agreed that that is going to be paid by Sunshine, and the CCJ has confirmed that its decision. What we have here is a trial over whether or not Sunshine can get this money.”
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