“Haad pay” City Council back in court over debts

Lisa Shoman

“Haad pay” City Council was taken back to court today by the Belize Maintenance Limited. This all goes back to November of 2009 when BML secured a clean legal victory against CitCo over monies owed to the sanitation company for street cleaning. The amount owed at the time stood at about one point nine million dollars. Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh gave City Hall room to pay up; it ordered them to come up with a payment plan. But that did not happen and the sum has accrued considerably. City Hall attempted to defer the ruling by the CJ. Representing BML owner Lawrence Ellis was Senior Counsel Lisa Shoman.

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for BML

“The Belize City Council came to court to try and get that judgment set aside however the Belize City Council has no defense to any of this and acknowledges that it owes the debt. So, therefore, today since the Belize City Council was unable to provide the Chief Justice with any compelling reasons why the judgment should be set aside, the application to set aside the judgment was refused.  The Belize City Council therefore still owes Belize Maintenance Limited one point nine million dollars plus interest plus costs.”

City Hall has been mired from scandal to scandal and is it is no secret that it is financially strapped and has been unable to meet payments despite public statements that it would. So what’s next?

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for BML

“One would hope that they would start paying their debt, yes.  Unfortunately, that has not yet occurred and despite Mr. Willoughby’s assurances to the public and despite various agreements made, no attempt has been made as yet to pay any of that.  We are hoping that that situation will not continue because Belize Maintenance Limited has performed the work to the full satisfaction of the Belize City Council.”

Councilor Phillip Willoughby deferred comment on today’s court case pending advice from its legal counsel.  The Belize City Council was represented by attorney Lionel Welch.  And According to Ellis the outstanding balance CitCo has for BML is in the area of three million dollars.