Two weeks ago, we told you how the Supreme Court exonerated attorney Sharon Pitts of claims of unjust enrichment. You'll remember that she was caught up in that land scandal that involved Andre Vega and his father, Former Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega.
It involved a piece of private land near the Haulover Bridge. Here's what happened. In the case of Andre Vega, the Ministry of Natural Resources, which was under the leadership of his father, sold a parcel of that private land to another individual. That paper title was then sold to Andre Vega, but because the Government did not own the property, it had no right to sell it. That then triggered the Ministry's compensation mechanism. 7News obtained evidence demonstrating that the Ministry was duly advised by its technocrats that the land was private.
But because a "wrong" was done to Vega due to this "mistake," he was compensated at market value for that private property that shouldn't have been sold. That's how he was paid 400 thousand dollars of taxpayer dollars. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Supreme Court decision that he was unjustly enriched could not stand. That's because he was not the one who erroneously issued the duplicate title to himself. The Ministry, under the leadership of his father, Gaspar - and therefore the Government - injured itself by producing that duplicate, not Andre Vega, the person who later purchased ownership of it.
But, before the Andre Vega saga occurred, the same thing happened with Sharon Pitts, who was issued a duplicate title for an adjoining parcel of the same property. She, too, was compensated for the duplication of 400 thousand dollars in government funds.
As we told you two weeks ago, Justice Lisa Shoman has ruled in her favor in the lawsuit brought by the Attorney General's Ministry. This afternoon, her attorney, Hubert Elrington, granted a press briefing. He made the point that the AG's Ministry had the wisdom and insight of the Court of Appeal judgment on Andre Vega and that they should have discontinued their case. Here's how he made that point:
