Wilfred Elrington Baffled by Case of Missing Documents; C.C.J. Says He Must Return Them

Wilfred Elrington

Senior Counsel and Government Minister Wilfred Elrington has been taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice in respect to his personal handling of a case for a company, Progresso Heights Limited, of which he is a shareholder. The court has told him as principal in Pitts and Elrington law firm to return several land title documents for land sold by the company for which they took purchase price. But in about half the cases the documents and monies paid for land in the Corozal District subdivision was not returned, and there was a question as to who actually received the documents at the firm. Elrington, who has been both Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs, says he personally was not aware of what was going on and appeared at a loss as to what to do next.

Wilfred Elrington, Defendant

“We were arguing a small appeal, where the Courtenay firm was acting on behalf of a company of which I am a shareholder, and the company alleged that they had entered into a contract with me to process certain documents and that we had not processed the documents and we had not delivered them back to them, so he was asking for a delivery back of the documents. The court ordered that the documents be delivered back, I think it is in thirty days. However, our position is that we don’t have the documents, we never had it, so I don’t know what will happen.”

Reporter

“What are the documents about?  What is the issue?”

Wilfred Elrington

“Land transfers; it was when I was in practice and we used to do land transfers.”

Reporter

“So you said that the court ordered that those documents be delivered; however you don’t have them.”

Wilfred Elrington

“I don’t have them.”

Reporter

“So what happens then?”

Wilfred Elrington

“I don’t know. My guess is as good as yours. If I don’t have them, I can’t give them up.”

Reporter

“And did he show proof that the documents were delivered to your office?”

Wilfred Elrington

“That was not definitively determined. It was something that happened while I was already in Government and the evidence is, to my mind, absent on that; completely absent.”

Reporter

“So what happened to those documents?”

Wilfred Elrington

“I don’t know.”

Reporter

“Would you say that you received them?”

Wilfred Elrington

“I didn’t receive them.”

Reporter

“Your office received them?”

Wilfred Elrington

“I can’t say that; I have no knowledge if my office received them. That is all it’s about.”

Reporter

“And if it doesn’t happen in the next thirty days…”

Wilfred Elrington

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. You can’t give back what you don’t have.”

Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay appeared for Progresso Heights Limited.