$1,099,912 plus interest; according to Justice Denys Barrow, that's the amount of damages the Novelo brothers have to pay Martha Williams and Eurocaribe shipping for breach of contract.
Williams sued the Novelo brothers and their tour company, Beli-Tur, after they reneged on a contract to pay Eurocaribe U.S. $1 for each cruise passenger that Eurocaribe sends their way. As the local agent for the Carnival Cruise Company it was a multi-million dollar deal with close to a half million-cruise passengers arriving on Carnival ships annually. And so when the payments stopped in January of 2003 Martha Williams claimed that it was a breach of contract and more so the ultimate betrayal since her company helped Beli-Tur set up shop.
In court Tony Novelo claimed there was no valid contract because he wasn't authorized to sign on behalf on Beli-Tur. In delivering his judgement this morning, Justice Barrow said Tony Novelo was obviously lying based on his manner, stance, and demeanor. Apart from pointing out the many lies or untruths, as he called them, in Tony Novelo's testimony, Barrow also said Beli-Tur failed to establish any defense.
Justice Barrow's conclusion was that Beli-Tur stopped paying because the company simply wanted to keep all the money for itself. But conceding that the contract would have died a natural and for that matter legal death anyway, Barrow only compensated Eurocaribe for lost payments in 2003 and 2004. That amounts to U.S. $519,956 plus 12% interest which is close to $1.5 million Belize dollars.
None of the Novelo brothers were in court for the judgement but their attorney Hubert Elrington gave verbal notice of appeal. Martha Williams told us she is pleased with the court's decision and said the lawsuit was a matter of principle.
Beli-Tur we note still continues to do business with Eurocaribe shipping since it is the choice tour company for Carnival and Eurocaribe is the local agent for Carnival.