The wall at the Tourism Village, one minute it’s up, then it’s supposed to be down, but it’s still up, and then it’s down, but might come back up. Eell, tonight we can tell you that it’s no might, the wall is going up again – and with the blessing of the courts. That’s after a ruling this morning by the Court of Appeals which overturned the controversial March 11th decision by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh.
At the time, Conteh ruled that the walls at Fort Street had violated the constitutional rights of the owners of Harbor View and the Brown Sugar Marketplace by not giving them the chance to earn a living. Well, after a day and a half of arguments from both sides, the judges of the Court of Appeal weren’t convinced that they had been deprived and even if they were, they could not get any remedies from Fort Street as a private company.
It’s a major victory for Fort Street as it means they are free to put back up their wall. It’s a huge disappointment for Brown Sugar and Harbor View, and made even more damning because they have to pay Fort Street’s costs, which will be, very, very expensive. We spoke to both sides as they left court.
Janelle Chanona, News 5
“You have any intention to go to the Privy Council?”
Billy Musa, Part Owner – Brown Sugar
“Check with my manager.”
Christian Riverol, Manager – Brown Sugar Marketplace
“Our board of directors and myself, we have to meet and discuss what the next step is from here. But no final plans yet if we will go to the Privy Council. I guess we will sit down and discuss that, what the next plan is from here.”
Fred Lumor, Attorney for Brown Sugar
“It is too early at the moment because we just got a verbal decision. The full details of the reason for the decision we will get later. What we will do is that depending on what line of action we want to pursue, we will sit down and discuss it and see how far we can take it from there. There are fall back positions for us so though the cloud looks gloomy, they are some silver linings I can promise you that.”
Jules Vasquez,
What’s your reaction to what happened in there?
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for Tourism Village
“Really not a surprise because really that should have been the outcome from the Supreme Court level. Arguments were in fact advanced at the Supreme
Court level but didn’t take root so we basically rehashed primarily the same arguments with some additions here at the Court of Appeal. The allegation was that the Fort Street Tourism Village had breached the claimants rights to work. ‘Right to work’ has a meaning, it has a legal meaning. Certain legal thresholds must be met if you are to get the relief you want and in this case it simply wasn’t met.”
Fred Lumor,
“Government was to pass legislation giving them the status of an international port of entry. The government failed to do so but they are actually acting as an international port of entry. But they are saying that because we are doing it, with our legislation, we are private so no public law remedies can be sought against us. So it is an ingenuous argument so we lost on that point.”
Janelle Chanona,
But do you now attack the government?
Fred Lumor,
“Oh yes government will eventually be liable for anything happens over there. That I can assure you.”
Jules Vasquez,
So will the wall go back up tonight?
Godfrey Smith,
“That is not a question for me. The judgement of the Court of Appeals is that the order of the Supreme Court be set aside. Those no longer exist so that’s a matter for the Fort Street Tourism Village. It is open to them to put it back up. Absolutely free to put up back the wall.”
Jules Vasquez,
You all are now free to re-erect the wall if you so choose. Will you all do that?
Michael John Mulligan, Security Chief – Fort Street
“We’ll have to wait until the management come back. They are not in the country right now. But I believe we will be doing something like that. When? I don’t know.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you feel vindicated by this?
Michael John Mulligan,
“Yes I do. We’ve said all along that it is nothing to do with, as far as I was concerned, with money. My job is the security of the port of entry and I believe it was refreshing to see judges from outside came in here and thought as same as we did.”
So now we wait and see if Brown Sugar will appeal to the Privy Council or go back to the Supreme Court on new grounds. And one more word on costs, we’re told that it could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars because it will likely include the cost of breaking down the wall, and then putting it back up.
