Carnival cruise case adjourned for a week

The Supreme Court hearing of a constitutional challenge to the Carnival cruise port contract initiated by the Belize Tourism Industry Association will have to wait for another week. Justice Samuel Awich this morning granted an adjournment on an application by attorney for the Belize Tourism Board, Melissa Balderamos Mahler. Mahler surprised the bench when she told the court that the B.T.B. had not been formally served with the notice that it had been joined as a respondent in the case. In his ruling last Wednesday, Judge Awich had ordered that the notice be served on the B.T.B. and he expressed surprise that the court’s order had not been carried out. Attorney for the B.T.I.A., Lois Young, tried unsuccessfully to convince the court that since the B.T.B., as an interested party in the case, had been given copies of all relevant documents, and the fact that Mahler showed up in court today, indicates that there was no prejudice caused to the B.T.B. by the failure to be formally served. The application for judicial review, which challenges the legality of the original and amended contracts to build and operate the cruise port, will be heard on December sixth.