BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 3, 2022– This morning, the Supreme Court of Belize struck out a claim submitted by Stake Bank Enterprise Limited, which sought a judicial review by the court of the environmental clearance that was granted to Portico Enterprise Limited’s Port of Magical Belize by the Department of the Environment(DOE). In July of 2021, Stake Bank Enterprise Limited, the company developing the Port Coral mega cruise port on Stake Bank island, located about 4 miles southeast of Belize City, was granted leave for judicial review of GoB’s approval of the Port of Magical Belize project. Today, however, Justice Lisa Shoman struck out the case, on the grounds that the attorneys for the claimant, Senior Counsel Glenn Godfrey and William Michael Lindo, Jr., failed to file the claim within the mandated 14-day period.

The parties made submissions yesterday, and an oral decision was reserved for this morning, when Justice Shoman ruled in favor of the Attorney General’s Ministry, the first defendant in the matter. In her ruling, she outlined that the rules of the court do not grant the bench powers to extend the fixed 14-day period in a judicial review action not filed within the mandated time.

The attorney for Stake Bank, William Michael Lindo, did not deny the legal requirement that there must be strict compliance with the 14-day mandated period, but maintained that they filed the claim within the stipulated time period. He noted that they uploaded the file to the Apex Court system and received acknowledgment of receipt prior to the end of that period. This was ruled to be not sufficient by Justice Shoman, who asserted that until a party receives a stamped court document, whether hardcopy or electronic, a claim is not considered filed.

In an interview subsequent to the hearing, Hector Guerra, attorney for Waterloo Investments Holdings, which is an interested party in the case, said, “The court today ruled that a document is not filed, or at least it’s deemed to be filed until a party received back a stamped copy of that electronic document, saying, look, it’s been filed, and it has the date.“

The judicial review action brought by Stake Bank hinged on the geographical proximity of the two ports, which, it has asserted, would reduce the financial viability of both projects, which would share a limited market. Those two locations, Port Coral and Port of Magical Belize, are located about 12 miles from each other, and somewhere in the middle of that would have been the proposed Waterloo port, which was denied environmental approval, but would have resulted in a three-way apportioning of market share, and further reduction in returns on investments.

Last year, Waterloo Investments joined the case after being denied environmental clearance by the Department of the Environment, following expressions of alarm, both by environmental groups and the country’s Belize Water Services Limited, about the adverse potential environmental impact of the project. Those environmental concerns were not cited when the approval was denied, and the company seemed to ignore those concerns when it issued a scathing letter accusing unnamed members of the National Environmental Appraisal Committee of attempting to seek bribes — a claim that they failed to substantiate with any evidence or further details, according to the Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Hon. Orlando Habet.

Stake Bank Enterprise Limited may have an opportunity to appeal the decision, said Guerra.

“There is a possibility that it may be an appeal. Of course, any litigant has that at its disposal. Now, in terms of whether a fresh claim can be brought, we have our reservation about that. We do not believe that a fresh claim can be brought as a result of the way the law stands at the moment,” Guerra said.

So for now, the battle of the ports continues, and Stake Bank’s Port Coral continues its construction of facilities to accommodate cruise tourists on the island. We will continue to follow.