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Games at 212 North Front Street?

GeneralGames at 212 North Front Street?
Counsel for the Government of Belize, Michael Young, SC, told Supreme Court Justice Samuel Awich this morning that the Government would like to expand the July 2009 injunction, which bars the Ashcroft company, Belize Social Development Limited (BSDL), from seeking to enforce a $38.5 million arbitration award against the Government of Belize, either in the US or any other jurisdiction, including locally, in Belize.
  
Today’s proceedings follow a January 13, 2012 ruling in the US Court of Appeals in the District of Colombia, which Government believes leaves the door open for BSDL to seek the US’s court’s help in collecting the arbitration award out of GOB assets in the US.
  
The Government had successfully argued for a stay in the lower US courts, but BSDL appealed in the US Court of Appeal, and the matter has now been sent back to the lower court, the District Court of Colombia.
  
“We are in a situation where the stay granted could be removed,” Young told Justice Awich, saying that the Government is applying now for a continuation of the 2009 injunction and a variation to specifically include “an order that the second defendant [BSDL] or their successors, assigns and subsidiaries be restrained from taking … any further steps in the continuation and prosecution of their petition to confirm and enforce the award,” Young added.
  
He is also asking the court to stipulate a penalty for the violation of the injunction, since the government attorney has indicated that BSDL has flatly ignored the current injunction, which generally bars attempts outside Belize to collect the award, and the extant court proceedings.
  
The attorney emphasized to the court that the intent is to include a request specifically to address the US court proceedings. 
  
The legal challenge to the much disputed accommodation agreements that the former Said Musa administration had entered into with Belize Telecommunications Limited (now Belize Telemedia Limited), dating back to 2005, was set to be heard today, January 30, through to Wednesday, February 1, 2012; however, Ashanti Arthurs-Martin of Courtenay Coye & Co. told the court that to her knowledge, her clients had not been properly served with all the respective documents, and that they did not have knowledge of the court proceedings in Awich’s courtroom until notices were published in the Amandala newspaper on January 15 and 22, 2012.
  
However, Lois Young, SC, attorney for BTL, who was counsel for the Government when the case was first filed for the injunction, told the court that documents had been served on BSDL way back in 2009 for the injunction, at 212 North Front Street, Belize City – the same address stated on the press release issued in early 2009 when BTL, under Ashcroft’s control, announced that the proceeds of the litigation would be assigned to BSDL.
  
The same address, known as a main address for the Ashcroft group of companies in Belize City, was also stipulated as BSDL’s address in a March 18, 2009, letter to the Government, to inform of the deed of assignment granted to BSDL to collect the arbitration award for payment to shareholders via dividend in specie, Counsel Lois Young explained.
  
Although service was previously accepted then for BSDL at 212 North Front Street, when a court officer recently attempted to serve documents at that same address for BSDL, service was rejected.
  
Attorney Michael Young recounted that on January 11, 2012, Allen Eiley, an officer of the court, visited 212 North Front Street, knocked at the door and a woman answered. He attempted to serve documents with a cover letter dated 3 November 2011, but the service was refused and the officer was told that no one there knew of any such company. The door was closed and he was left standing outside, Eiley deposed in a sworn affidavit to the court.
  
Young noted that whereas 212 North Front Street previously accepted service, now they are saying they don’t know the company (BSDL).
  
He said that it is “disrespectful” for the BSDL counsel to now say they just now know of the proceedings, particularly when the US court, in its recent decision in the very case filed by BSDL, makes reference to this same Belize case. “…So how can they say they didn’t know?” he asked.
  
Justice Awich instructed Counsel Michael Young to make a formal application to have the expanded injunction made.
  
He also asked for the parties to make whatever filings they need to make prior to next Wednesday, February 8, 2012, when he will declare whether he deems BSDL to have been properly served. He will also declare whether he will accede to BSDL’s request to adjourn the case, on the claim that they didn’t know of the proceedings previously.
  
Young told the court that his instruction from the Government of Belize is to object to any further adjournment.
  
The case was first lodged in the court back in 2009 and a hearing is still pending, nearly two years later.

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