The ACB though, is not waiting for the House meeting, it took the government to court today. Appearing before Supreme Court Justice Michelle Arana, Lois Young Barrow and Dean Barrow were attorneys for the joint party comprising the ACB, the National Trade Union Congress, the Medical and Dental Union, and Senator Godwin Hulse. They also presented a 79 page petition with 1,537 names opposing the Universal guarantee.
And while the senior counsels were prepared to do battle, Solicitor General Edwin Flowers opened with what appeared to be a surprising concession. He told the court that government will give its undertaking not to make any payments under the guarantee until this case is finished. The hearings won't start until May 30th, so lead counsel Lois Young said it's a major victory.
Jules Vasquez,
Do you all view this as a victory?
Lois Young, Attorney for ACB
"Total, total wonderful victory. He said, 'we will not pay under the guarantee or any document emanating from the guarantee or related to the guarantee until the determination of this court action.' What happened this morning when the Solicitor General gave his undertaking was a tacit implied acknowledgement that the guarantee is unlawful because you cannot agree not to act on something on the basis that you have a perfectly legal document. If I have a perfectly legal guarantee, why would I not pay under it."
But not so fast. We're told that government will not make any payment under the guarantee because on Friday it hopes to bring a completely new instrument to the House of Representatives that, we gather, will be independent of the guarantee or any of the related documents. In short, it will make the guarantee, the loan note, and the deed of settlement, irrelevant. And Young Barrow did concede that Parliament does have the power to change the whole game on them.
Lois Young,
"The House of Representatives and the National Assembly can make any law it wants so I don't know, we will have to wait and see what they are going to present on Friday. But whatever they present that is not in breach of this undertaking would have to be an Act of Parliament, an Act of the House of Representatives approved by the Senate which has to be something to say, 'we pass an Act that we will pay this money over to the Belize Bank.'
As you know Parliament can do whatever it wants. It can repeal the whole constitution if it has the right majority. It can do anything, it can make any law to overrule. It can make what is unlawful, lawful so there is nothing more you can do once Parliament steps in."
The Belize Bank's attorney Andrew Marshalleck has joined as an interested party.
