Last night, we told you how the Court of Appeal upheld the defamation award that the Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister John Briceno and Love FM to pay to Karen Bevans, the former Director of Tourism.
She has already collected those 90 thousand dollars, but she is still owed over three quarters of a million dollars from the Belize Tourism Board. Last month, Justice Chabot ruled in her favor in the lawsuit she brought against the BTB.
In March of 2021, the Belize Tourism Board terminated Bevans, insisting that her contract - which still had four years on it - had not been properly entered into and was not valid. She lawyered up and argued successfully that she was still owed the salary she would have collected from those four remaining years. Justice Chabot agreed and ordered the BTB to pay her the total value for the rest of the terminated contract, plus the cost to her attorney.
But that's not the end of the fight because Bevans and Barrow are bracing for the BTB to appeal the judgment. Yesterday, he discussed that ongoing battle with us at his office:
Dean Barrow, SC - Attorney for Karen Bevans
"Now, in terms of the BTB, they have already said on TV - as I understand - somebody sent me a Youtube video of Minister Mahler saying they will appeal. What happens when it is government, as in the case of myself and Hugo Patt, they appeal, and they just don't pay. The court found for me in the Commission of Inquiry case, found for Hugo Patt in the Commission of Inquiry case, and ordered damages to be paid. The Government appeals, and while the appeal is pending, they just don't pay you because, unlike regular litigants, who, when an order for payment is made against them - even if they appeal, and they don't get something from the Court of Appeal, or from the judge below, saying that we will stay the payment of the damages ordered against you, to await the outcome of the appeal. If they don't get that, then they have to pay. The government doesn't because you can't enforce against the Government. If it were anybody else, and they don't pay, and they don't get a stay, then you go, and you seize their things. Now, as far as I know, some statutory bodies, the law setting ups the statutory body, would actually have a provision saying that you can't enforce against the statutory body, similarly as with the government. I don't - I haven't gone to look at it yet, but I don't believe that this provision appears in the statute governing the BTB. So, as far as I know, what will happen now - in fact, we were in court - when was it - yesterday, arguing over the question of costs."
