There is more confusion and contention in the corporate affairs of BTL tonight. This morning, the Court of Appeals issued the full written judgement following up on its August 22nd announcement that it was reversing the judgement made by the Chief Justice in April of this year.
The full judgement makes it clear that government misinterpreted the August announcement. At the time Attorney General Francis Fonseca insisted that the Appeals Court judgement did not affect Government's and E-com's control of the Board of Directors. Well, it turns out, the Attorney General, government's lawyer, was dead wrong.
The full judgement explains that 4 Prosser directors were never properly removed from the Board of Directors. The judgement states: "C directors remain in office until they retire by revocation of rotation." That never happened, in fact they were removed incorrectly so by the determination of the Appeals Court Judges, Prosser should have 4 seats on the board of directors, which would have tied it at a 4 - 4 deadlock which is what we reported on August 24th but it seems government didn't get the news until today.
And while the judgement is clear on what should be the composition of the board, what is not clear is where things will go from here because the Utilities Minister declared, by statute, who the directors are, regardless of what the court says. And generally legislation, once it is not unconstitutional, trumps adjudication - or put in small change, might makes right, making the Minister right.
And that's why two pending matters in the courts bear watching. First, Prosser's attorneys in Belize have challenged the constitutionality of that statutory instrument and second, Ashcroft's attorney was yesterday granted leave to appeal today's decision to the Privy Council.
