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Chief Justice Rules In Favor of Government

Back in April Justice Oswell Legall declared that six Production Sharing Agreements which the Government of Belize signed with oil companies to be null and void. The following month, Treaty Energy Belize, a sub-company of Princess Petroleum- one of the six companies that hold a Production Sharing Agreement- resumed drilling for oil. OCEANA Belize launched a full legal battle against GOB and this morning, after weeks of back and forth, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, declared his ruling on the matter. OCEANA lost this leg of the case but according to lawyer for Oceana, Godfrey Smith and Oceana’s Vice President, Audrey Matura –Shepherd, it’s not over yet as Oceana plans to take the matter to the Court of Appeal.
Godfrey Smith, Lawyer OCEANA Belize
Essentially he has accepted the government’s argument that if the injunction isn’t halted, isn’t stayed; the government will suffer irreparable harm. Our view was that on the evidence the case had not been made out which was the job of the government to make out, that if suffer irreparable harm. That continues to be our view. We obviously need time to examine the judgment carefully but I am fairly certain that the instructions will be need to appeal that decision. So that is where matters rest at this time. Frankly I am disappointed but that is the risk of litigation. You think you have a good strong case and judgments, because this case is a high profile case there is a great deal of public disappointment. As I said, we usually take time to look at the written judgment to digest and then if the client instructs us to appeal then we take it from there. We did not believe that an exceptional case was made out. The Chief Justice obviously did. We will take time to look at his reasoning closely and decide our next step from there.
Audrey Matura Shepherd, VP OCEANA BELIZE
This is an interlocutory matter. It’s an interim matter before we go to the Court of Appeal. I still maintain that position because you can’t look on the judgment only by one little piece. You like the piece on the in fact that the injunction immediately binds the hands of the government and I maintain that the government when it has its hand bond cannot tell the oil companies to continue acting on a contract that is already declared unlawful, null and void. Nothing in what the Chief Justice says undoes that part of the judgment because he knows that he was not call upon to deal with that. So I still maintain that position. Of course, that being said is that we are a law abiding entity. If this is the ruling of the court then we will respect that decision. But we know that there is a still legal recourse. I mean, this matter is barely at the Supreme Court level. We have yet to go at the Caribbean Court of Justice. It’s not a done deal. You all have seen us started this case over two years now and battle out this case every step of the way. We’ve won every step of the way except for today and this is just a side matter. The substantive matter will be at the court of appeal. I don’t want people to be disheartened; I am certainly not disheartened. In the judgment, the Chief Justice, just spoke about six companies operating even though there was a ruling. That is not so but the evidence before him was only that because you all know that we brought the case against six companies but only two are still operating because the government, by their own accord, three days before the ruling came out, decided that they would cancel their contracts. There is that concern that providence will continue. The companies were at liberty to be part of the matter. They say that the government can represent their interest. Obviously they were right. You see the government in the court battling for them. Why would they spend their money getting attorneys to fight this case when tax payer’s money could be doing it for them? You think it is easy when the Prime Minister’s brother gets up in front before a judge? Why would they come and triumph that? That is the best triumph card they have and this is a former court of appeal judge. Let’s be real. There is the case, the judiciary and there is the optics of the situation and the politics of the situation. You all have to understand that we are only dealing with the legal part and the Chief Justice had to make a decision on what he thought was before him. But there is so much more to this. So I still remain confident. We are not going away. We are not upset. We are disappointed but this is just one more step; one more step to reaching the mountain top.
Government’s lawyer, Senior Counsel, Denys Barrow, says that Chief Justice Benjamin’s decision allows Government to properly regulate the oil companies’ actions.
Denys Barrow, Lawyer GOB
A declaration does not have any enforceable effect and this injunction, and the Chief Justice said it at least three times, this injunction does not bind the oil companies. So where we are is exactly where I said we are, which is the declaration were made and we are appealing that. We regard those are declaration as having been with respect wrongfully made. We think the declaration ought not to be made in the circumstances. You do not make a declaration which will confuse people by pronouncing for instance a contract null and void and lead people who do not have the proper exposure to the law into thinking that that means it has been squashed. Miss Matura and Mr. Fonseca have both said that and that is perfectly wrong. So this is the error of Justice Legall’s judgment- it gives a wrong impression of what the situation really is. It means that the Ministry can now freely, openly and in accordance with the PSA and in accordance with the general law regulates what is taking place. So that they can ensure what takes place is properly taking place and they can ensure what the Government wants and what the nation of Belize wants will take place without any interruptions, uncertainty, doubt as to what can be done.
Reporter
The companies haven’t joined the litigation because they have the government fighting their battle for them. Has the government or you as the attorney impressed upon them the importance of possibly joining the litigation?
Denys Barrow, Attorney GOB
This again is part of the propaganda spin that Miss Matura is very good at and one has to pay tribute. She is unceasing in this regard but she needs to appreciate that she does a disservice to people because she misleads people with these false statements. One or more of the oil companies had considered joining as she has testified, I think, this is my surmise and I think it is a reasonable surmise, when they realize that the case that Matura-Shepherd and her organization had brought was absolutely incapable of impacting them, they did the sensible thing, “this fight no concern me so why should I try to get into it?” There is not anything that OCEANA can get out of that claim that they brought that makes it sensible for the oil companies to join in. So why join in?

Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin is expected to hand down the written decision on Monday. The Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage has expressed their discontent with the ruling and plans to join Oceana in its application to appeal the matter.
The Statistical Institute of Belize, SIB, today released the preliminary findings of its labor force survey conducted for the month of April 2013. The survey looked at the rates of unemployment in terms of age, gender, and by districts. According to the results, the national employment rate for April 2013 stood at 12.1%- a decrease from 14.4% as recorded for the previous year for the same month. According to the Statistical Institute of Belize, the decrease to 12.1% represents a fall in the number of persons without a job from about 21,370 to 17,920 persons. In terms of unemployment rate by districts, it varied from a minimum 8% in Toledo to a maximum 15.5% in Stann Creek. The SIB says that there was a decline of unemployment rate in all districts, particularly in Toledo and Cayo where the unemployment rate decreased by more than 5% with its attributes in the agricultural sector. In terms of gender, the survey found out that women continued to be more affected by unemployment than males. According to the results, women are three times more likely to be unemployed than men. Persons between the ages of 14 and 24 remain the highest sector to be unemployed. The SIB says that the decline in the unemployment rate was due to a smaller percentage of working-age persons working. It is expected that a more detailed report will be released in the next two months.