BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 11, 2023
The people of Belize might get an ease if the High Court reviews the award and determines a much lower figure for the parties in line for over 5 million dollars of our taxpayer dollars in compensation for our own national patrimony which was practically “given away” by an outgoing government. See story below: “Appeals Court sets aside $5.639M damages award for Olivia Villanueva”.
How else can it be described but a 100-fold “come up”, for investing less than $50,000 to get back $5,000,000 on the backs of the suffering Belizean populace.
This story has been played out many times before, with many different actors/actresses, and the ending is always the same – our Belizean birthright is diminished and/or tax-payers foot the bill to compensate the chosen beneficiaries of all our hard-earned pennies and dimes.
But everything is legal. And that is why the Constitutional Commission has a very, very important task. If our new Constitution makes proper provision to address this type of scenario, instead of our courts going through legal semantics to determine how much our government will have to compensate those who were gifted with the largesse of our national assets, our courts would instead be doing the work of landing charges and determining penalties against the violators of our new laws designed to stop the legal looting of our people’s patrimony.
If ever there was a case demonstrating the need for a new Constitution, this case is a perfect example of the injustice our people need to be protected against.
Appeals Court sets aside $5.639M damages award for Olivia Villanueva
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 11, 2023
The Court of Appeal has set aside a March 12, 2021 Supreme Court damages award for $5.639 million to Olivia Villanueva, the daughter-in-law of LOVE FM principal, Rene Villanueva, Sr. The matter must now be remitted for rehearing before the newly structured High Court. Private attorney for the Government, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck welcomed the decision—having described the multimillion-dollar High Court judgment as generous.
In 2019, Villanueva, principal of Ivorr Realty, sued the then Barrow Administration for land that was taken back from her. The land in question had been obtained just eight days before the February 7, 2008 general elections. There were two parcels. One for 102.53 acres was situated at the Turneffe Island Range, while the other was for 105 acres at Hicks Caye. The purchase price for each was $26,657 and $27,300, respectively.
While the matter was before the court, the parties agreed to a consent order dated June 11, 2019 that stated that the Government would grant Villanueva title for the Hicks Caye property, and an alternate property would be found to give to her in exchange for the Turneffe land that the Government had sold to someone else. Otherwise, she would file an application for assessment of damages. No suitable alternative was agreed upon, and so Villanueva sued for breach of contract. The land was valued at $5.639 million by Certified Land Valuer, Talbert Brackett, Sr. – now the Lands Commissioner.
In court, Assistant Solicitor General, Samantha Matute-Tucker submitted that Brackett’s valuation did not reflect the true market value of the land, and a request was made for a court-appointed expert to determine the proper figure for undeveloped acreage on Turneffe. The alternative was for the assessment to be based on comparable units on Turneffe valued less than the figure cited by Brackett. Acting Chief Justice Michelle Arana, however, accepted Brackett’s valuation and ordered that damages be paid at his cited figure of $5.639 million.
The Government’s appeal (Civil Appeal No. 5 of 2021) was heard by the Court of Appeal on March 7, 2023 and the decision was handed down on May 8, 2023. The 11-page judgment indicated that the $5.639 million award was to be set aside due to the Acting Chief Justice seemingly not having taken note of the cross-examination of Brackett which yielded material in favour of the Government. Justice Arana had written in her judgment that Brackett was not cross-examined, when, in fact, he had been. The Court of Appeal judges considered this a material error on the part of the judge in the lower court, and therefore ordered that the matter be remitted back to the High Court for the assessment of damages de novo.
Marshalleck told Amandala that once the matter is remitted to the High Court, the expectation is that they will hear from several experts to properly ascertain the figure for damages.
Leave to appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice must be sought within 42 days of the date of the Court of Appeal judgment. At this time, there is no indication that Villanueva will choose to do so. She was represented by attorneys Darrell Bradley and Deshawn Arzu-Torres.