The Government may be broke and borrowing to pay salaries, but now, it has to find megabucks to pay another multimillion dollar land compensation - thanks to a Supreme Court judgement.
In March, the Acting Chief Justice Michelle Arana ruled that government owes a real estate company called Ivorr Realty 5.6 million dollars for a large piece of land on Turneffe.
The suit was brought by Olivia Villanueva, daughter in law of LOVE FM's Chief, Rene Villanueva.
That award is exponentially greater than the price that Ivorr paid for the land back in February of 2008 when it acquired 102.5 acres of land along the east coast of the Turneffe Island Range for the almost charitable sum of $27,300 dollars - a bottom dollar bargain price, considering also that the land has almost three thousand feet of sea frontage.
Two days after Ivorr got title, the government changed - and the new regime at the Lands Department cancelled Ivorr's title for those 102.5 acres. Later on, the Ministry of Natural Resources committed that an alternate piece of land would be found to compensate Ivorr. But, a suitable replacement was never found, so the compensation agreement was never settled. And that's why Ivorr's attorney Dehsawn Arzu Torres sued government for the unlawful acquisition of property. Arzu Torres retained Land Valuer Talbert Bracket to assess the property, and he found it to be valued at 5.63 million dollars. The Chief Justice agreed with that valuation, and said government now has to pay Ivorr that sum, plus costs.
It's a huge award that government now has to pay, and a massive windfall for Ivorr Realty since the award is about 200 times greater than the initial purchase price of $27,300 dollars paid for the land two days before the 2008 general election.
Minister of Natural Resources Cordel Hyde told us the matter is with the Attorney General's ministry for them to advise us whether there are grounds for an appeal.
