The contract signed between the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) president, Diane Haylock, and Belize City-based businessman, David Gegg, will be judicially reviewed. That was the ruling of Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh today following a mystifying move by the NICH board.
In the second affidavit of Diane Haylock, made on Wednesday after the board had held its meeting earlier in the day, the NICH board held a meeting and took several resolutions. The “damaging” resolution was that the board “noted that the concession agreement was being challenged in the Supreme Court and instructed the president to inform the Court that the board would re-execute the agreement in accordance with the NICH Act.”
The resolution was brought to the attention of the Court by Haylock’s attorney, Eamon Courtenay, and called “helpful” by the CJ, since it goes to the core of the claim. But Courtenay was quick to say that he was not present at the board meeting, as he would have advised the board to include an “if” in the resolution. That is, he felt the board’s intention was to say “if you win, then we will do it correctly”.
Courtenay maintained that his client does not “concede that anything is improper with the contract…Nothing in the Act [even says] how to do that [find a remedy]…a public law issue cannot be raised.”
But the resolution was seized upon by Jaguar Paw’s attorney, Godfrey Smith, who reminded the court that his client’s claim was that the contract was entered into unlawfully. For Smith, the board’s resolution to “re-execute the agreement” supports his client’s claim that it wasn’t properly entered into in the first place.
The Chief Justice agreed that the resolution appears concessionary.
Another highlight of today’s proceeding was that in direct response to Haylock’s first affidavit (which includes the minutes of a meeting in which Haylock says the board was given full disclosure, including photocopies of the agreement), a NICH board member, Osiris Rodriguez, filed an affidavit in support of Jaguar Paw, alleging that the board members were not aware of the agreement when it was entered into and did not approve or ratify the contract. Rodriquez’s affidavit also claims that no one was ever delegated to sign such a deal.
To further convince the Court that an arguable case exists, Elson Kaseke, the lawyer of Jaguar Paw’s managing owner, Donna Young, pointed to yet another NICH board resolution passed on Wednesday, which speaks of instructions to the president to “continue with the designation” of the site. Kaseke says that that resolution and the contents of the second affidavit by the Director of the Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Jaime Awe, proves that the property in question is not an archaeological site.
At this point in the submissions, the Chief Justice cut into the presentations and granted permission for the Gegg/NICH contract to be judicially reviewed.
Following today’s proceedings, NICH attorney, Lois Young, agreed with Courtenay that the board’s resolution to “re-execute” is not an admission of unlawfulness, but rather is a message that the board continues to proceed with the agreement signed between NICH and David Gegg.
For his part, Godfrey Smith was left confident that he would emerge victorious in the case, which he feels will be short, given the points that the NICH board has already conceded. According to him, the only other point that needs to be argued is the status of No Hoch Chen, the official name of the cave tubing attraction. Smith disputes that it is an archaeological reserve or even an ancient monument. He is asking that the entrance fees paid by the lodge and its guests be reimbursed.
For clarity, we note that Lois Young is representing NICH. Eamon Courtenay and Michel Chebat are acting on behalf of interested party David Gegg. Eamon Courtenay is also appearing for Diane Haylock. Godfrey Smith and Elson Kaseke represent Jaguar Paw and Donna Young, respectively. Kaseke and Smith have undertaken to file the necessary papers by February 26.