Court of Appeal meets in emergency session

Lois Young

It’s a most unusual, in fact from we know, the first time that the court of appeal was convened over an entire weekend and as early as six o’clock in the morning.  It is also a first time that the court is being sought to stop the Governor General from enacting a law. The legal maneuverings began since last week and will continue on Tuesday in the court of appeal which this morning granted an injunction to give way to full arguments in the case of Vaughan Gill and Ricardo Castillo. Both Gill and Castillo went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to prevent the governor from putting his signature to the controversial Ninth Amendment before a referendum is held. The Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin did not grant that injunction. His ruling came one hour before the House meeting on Friday, which passed the Ninth Amendment. But even as the mood among government supporters was festive in Belmopan, in Belize City, Attorneys Godfrey Smith and British QC Peter Goldsmith were working against the clock feverishly filing an appeal. Late Friday evening, the Court of Appeal agreed to convene on Saturday, which as we said, is a rare undertaking. Attorney for the government, Lois Young, made her submission that Justice Douglas Mendes did not have the jurisdiction to preside over the case as an individual appeals justice. She could also not provide an undertaking that the government would not proceed with enacting the ninth.  The court adjourned to resume on Sunday; Young shifted her submissions, arguing that the Court of Appeal could not meet on a Sunday. Justice Mendes then asked for skeleton arguments and agreed to resume the session at six o’clock this morning. Shortly after nine, a decision was handed down; the Court of Appeal granted an injunction. Young addressed the press.

Jules Vasquez, 7News

“And now you all are asking for a suspended injunction. The injunction is till four p.m. tomorrow. What would have been the purpose of suspending the injunction until the full court is moved?”

Lois Young, Attorney

“Because if it was suspended, then we would have gone ahead with our application—we will go ahead with our application to set it aside. We do suspect that the court will rule on that before four p.m. tomorrow.”

Jules Vasquez

“So even if it does rule in your favor, the injunction will still stand?”

Lois Young

“No, no, we will ask the court to set that aside—it will override the injunction that set it until four p.m.—that will be overruled.”

Jules Vasquez

“It has been a very unusual weekend—we’ve been here on Saturday, Sunday and we came here at six a.m. on Monday. In court you described it as unseemly haste. What do you make of these extraordinary precedence setting hearings?”

Lois Young

“I have no idea what to make of it. All I know is the application was filed on Friday and we were summoned to court on Saturday, brought back to court on Sunday and brought back to court this morning at six a.m. I have no idea why it had to be done in that haste, but that’s the way it is.”

Jules Vasquez

“Because a referendum is only, as I understand it, informative; it is not mandatory—I mean if the legislation passes.”

Lois Young

“Well the application was never to restrain the senate, so why was there such a haste to have it heard today. I think what they were trying to do was to restrain the senate by a backdoor—by somehow having an injunction on someone to stop the senate from meeting, but that is not possible. The senate wasn’t made a party to these proceedings.”

Marion Ali, Love News

“Now you made your arguments based on few grounds over the entire weekend. Can you tell us what those grounds are?”

Lois Young

“Basically that there is no obligation to have a referendum and that this referendum can be held at any time for whatever purpose. It won’t stop the legislative process. We’ve said that about twenty million times all over—in the lower court and in this court—they try to say there is an expectation that it would stop the process but there is no such expectation. The prime minister has always said, I will abide the outcome of the public consultation process—that is the process that goes from district to district. He never once referred to any referendum—in partilcuar a referendum where they paid two dollars for every signature and that is in the evidence.”

Jules Vasquez

“Now, we’re going to presume that y’all are going to ask for a hearing of the full court immediately. The justice of appeal Mendez indicated that he does not expect that the application by Vaughn Gill and Ricardo Castillo will have much success going forward.”

Lois Young

“Yes clearly he said the appeal stands very little chance of success.”

Jules Vasquez

“But then, explain the principle why such exhaustive and extraordinary measures are then being taken to hear an appeal with a slender chance of success?”

Lois Young

“Well I don’t know if the appeal will go forward after this.”