Cane-Farmer Applies for Interim Injunction

Like we said, the industry and players are volatile. That interview with Chairman Cansino was done this afternoon, and about an hour after, we got word that parties had filed for an interim injunction to halt the signing of the agreement. It gets pretty complicated, but in a nutshell, cane-farmer Lucilo Teck is claiming that when farmers agreed to sign onto the agreement with ASR/B.S.I. on December twenty-second, it was done informally and not strictly by the rules. Those Association bylaws apparently state that farmers would have to formally pass a resolution with the points contained in the new agreement. It’s a little hard to keep up, but the bottom line is that according to Audrey Matura-Shepherd, the application for the interim injunction effectively ties the hands and binds the pens of the B.S.C.F.A.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Attorney

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

“The application for the interim injunction means that it won’t be permanent; they are just holding off the signing until certain procedures occur. An injunction application can be ex parte or with notice—ex parte means without giving notice to the other party. In this case, we have given notice to the Cane Farmers Association committee of management. So they know, they are very well aware that an injunction has been filed—we’ve sent them a copy electronically, we are going to deliver them a hard copy as soon as the court sets the date. We’ve asked the court to give them three days notice to come and respond to this application. Why are we doing that? We don’t want them to go ahead and sign having notice of an application and then acting in bad faith. Now that they know that there is an application that they must respond to at the court, if they proceed and sign, it will only work against them because in the application it outlines clearly the basis why the application is being made and what at the procedures that Mister Lucilo Teck is asking for them to follow. And they must comply because Mister Lucilo Teck is basing his application strictly on the provisions of the Sugar Industry Act, the By-Laws of the Association and the standing orders. And so he has a good basis, but we want the court to decide. And so the application has been made. Mister Lucilo Teck has insisted that that is the way he wants to go and I am sure after due consultation with many people, that’s where he is going. I only obliged in preparing the application.”

Mike Rudon

“Now because this is only at an application stage, if the association goes ahead and signs, you said it would be acting of bad faith. Legally speaking, would the court be able to overthrow any agreement signed between the B.S.C.F.A. and ASR/B.S.I.?”

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

“Well the way we’ve put in the application, yes, because we say that if they proceed and sign, we want the court declare that agreement null and void and therefore quashed. We pre-empt that if they proceed, that we are also making an application to have it quashed and there would be basis as outlined in our application there are certain procedures that need to be followed. Key to it is the fact that there is still a valid resolution passed July twentieth of 2013 by Mister Teck himself, no resolution has been passed since to defeat that. So there is no voting, nothing that can go on. There has to be a resolution to defeat that to proceed to another level. In that resolution that he had put forward in 2013, he is basically saying that they were not to proceed in agreeing with anything until the government, ASR and B.S.I. acknowledge and recognize that the ownership of the cane and its product belongs to the cane farmers. The agreement now that the want to sign—the committee of management, the chairman and the secretary wants to sign—goes contrary to that resolution and they are going to sign an agreement based on a motion which is just a voting to discuss something rather than a resolution which is a legally binding instrument which under their legislation and under their by-laws, the committee can only act on a resolution.”