Misty Michael Sues B.T.B. and Wins
Misty Michael
The Belize Tourism Board has to shell out over two hundred thousand dollars in another wrongful termination case, this one brought by former director Misty Michael who was dismissed shortly after the People’s United Party took office in 2020. Michael was reportedly let go after being told that due to the pandemic and its severe economic impact on the tourism sector, B.T.B. could no longer afford to honor its contract with her as an employee. She was subsequently terminated. Not long after, B.T.B. hired someone else to fill the same post from which Michael was removed. Senior Counsel Dean Barrow explained the case and how they were successful in their litigation.
Dean Barrow
Dean Barrow, Attorney-at-law
“This arose as, I‘m sure the public will remember, out of her having been terminated along with maybe three or so other senior managers. The excuse given, or the reason given by the B.T.B. at time was that the B.T.B. had been left so strapped for cash, as a consequence of COVID, that it could no longer afford to pay them, and each of them had contracts that contained a clause saying, if the B.T.B. is unable to pay you, the B.T.B. can then exercise an option to terminate you. So two things arose. Mrs. Michael sued and we filed the claim on her behalf and the B.T.B. said well, first of all, we are not liable because we exercised our right under that clause in the contract. We are saying that we were simply no longer able to pay and so Mrs. Michael had to go. But they also said, as they did in the Karen Bevans case, that the contract, because it contained not just that clause about the B.T.B.‘s being able to terminate if the B.T.B. couldn‘t pay, it also contained a clause saying, but if there is no cause or if there is not termination for that reason of inability to pay and the B.T.B., nevertheless, dismisses the employee, then the B.T.B. must pay that employee up until the end of the contract. So if there is a year to go, two years to go, the B.T.B. must pay. And that was the essence of our claim, that: number one, the B.T.B. was not broke. The B.T.B. was still functioning. It‘s finances may have become straightened but it was certainly not in a position where it could legitimately say that it was unable to pay. There were other factors at play. Mrs. Michael was viewed in a certain light and, we submitted, apparently couldn’t get along with the minister or the minister thought that she was not supportive of him and we contended that those were the real reasons.”
We note that this is the second lawsuit that the B.T.B. has lost, including the wrongful termination of former Director of Tourism Karen Bevans. We are told that there are at least two or three more lawsuits that are awaiting decision arising from a similar matter.
