In January government took former Caribbean Shores Area Representative Jose Coye and former Natural Resources Minister Florencio Marin Sr. to court for malfeasance in public office. Government sued Coye and Marin for $1.4 million which is what they said they deserved from the sale of 57 lots in the University Heights area of West Landivar. Government sold the lots for $4,000 to Cheop Enterprise who resold them for $30,000 each. So government wanted the difference but it won’t get it. That is because this morning in a lengthy judgement, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh upheld a submission from Coye’s lead attorney Francis Fonseca and dismissed the case. He told us what the ruling was.
Francis Fonseca, Attorney for Jose Coye
“Respect to the first submission the Chief Justice did not agree with us. He said yes the tort can lie against former public officers but in respect of the second submission we made, he ruled that the Attorney General did not have the status to bring this action against the former public officers, that in fact it was a tort limited to private persons that only aggrieved private persons could bring this tort and on that basis he has dismissed the action against the two defendants, Florencio Marin and Joe Coye.”
Jose Coye, Vindicated
“I want to say yes I feel indeed vindicated once again but this was driven by greed and malice. It had nothing to do with any mismanagement or any miscarriage of justice while in public office and the evidence is overwhelming, it is overwhelming. There has been no evidence to support the charges that were to be brought.”
We should note that government had initially issued letters of cautions to the titleholders who bought land from Cheop. Those were however later lifted and government instead filed the civil suit against Coye and Marin.
