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Lois takes Godfrey to task

LettersLois takes Godfrey to task
27th October 2010
 
Dear Editor,
   
I read with dismay but no surprise, Godfrey Smith’s Flashpoint of 18th October 2010 in which he proceeded with personalized deliberateness to single out members of Belize’s judiciary for attack. 
   
First he singled out Mr. Justice Samuel Lungole Awich for being the subject of negative comments by the Court of Appeal because he took 3 years to deliver a judgment. This was completely unfair because as a fact, there are other members of the judiciary in the same boat and one Justice in particular who took 4 years to deliver a judgment in a dispute between a husband and wife over property they jointly owned. Within those 4 years the bank foreclosed on the property and the wife lost everything. Neither party wanted to service the mortgage until the court decided their dispute. By the time the judgment came down, it was too late!
           
As to the appointment of Mr. Justice Legall as a temporary fill-in judge for one case on the Court of Appeal: what is it that makes Justice Legall so inappropriate to Mr. Smith? Is it that Smith feels aggrieved that he has lost cases before this judge? We all lose cases, and we just have to suck it up. In any case my information is that Mr. Justice Legall was a seasoned Justice in Guyana before coming to Belize so he is in no sense a junior judge.
   
And how does Mr. Smith know that Chief Justice Conteh’s request to attend a judicial event was summarily (and he says, “spitefully”) rejected by a junior officer from the P.M.’s Ministry? If Mr. Smith was directly in touch with Justice Conteh and thereby obtained this personal information, then I think it is inappropriate to use the information for his political essay.
   
I also wonder how the Bar Executive from whose pen issued the “angry resolution” it published in the name of the Bar Association, came to know the details of a supposedly private meeting between Chief Justice Conteh and the Prime Minister. Could it be that members of the Bar Executive were purposely informed in order to elicit the very response that came forth?
   
By writing about judges in such a singular and personal way it would appear that Mr. Smith is trying to intimidate the judiciary. And the only reason I can think of for doing that, is so the Judges will think twice before they give a judgment against his clients. The attacks smack of contempt of court.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Lois M. Young, Attorney-at-law

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