Novelo Brothers back in court over transport routes

The Novelo brothers, David and Tony, the principal owners of National Transport also made an appearance in court today.  The matter which had been adjourned from before dealt with an application to do two things; strike out the judicial review case for National Transport and the Transport Board and the 2008 injunction which was placed on National Transport that reduced the number of routes on the company. Not only did this particular court battle start before the company went into receivership, according to the attorney for the Novelo brothers, it is a major reason why National Transport went into receivership.

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for Novelo Brothers

lisa shoman

“Because as you know the company, National Transport, has been put in receivership, the receiver did choose to have an additional attorney added onto the matter. And will be looking at the case and joining into it. So what they’ve done is to ask the court to give it a short adjournment until such time that it is then prepared to move ahead with the case.”

Jose Sanchez

“What does this mean for the commuters and former employees?”

Lisa Shoman

“In terms of the commuters in the north, service has been carried out per usual. There were other bus providers other than national transport—I understand that that gap has been filled. And there is now an adjournment until the fourth of January as to the lifting of the injunction. It simply means that at this point in time, the minister, no matter his opinion on the subject, cannot actually grant any license at this point. The injunction remains in place at least until the fourth of January and may very well remain in place until thereafter. I cannot say at this point. That will be up to the court to determine.”

Jose Sanchez

“How strongly do you feel about the case regarding the zoning issues that really…?”

Lisa Shoman

“We’ve always felt very strongly about the case. In fact, we believe that part of the reason why National Transport is now in receivership has to do directly with the imposition of new zoning rules in which the ministry was purported to say that bus providers can only provide service in one zone—it was either south, west or north. As you know, we were able to get an injunction to stop ministry it in the north only. But national transport denied runs in south. It had the west drastically slashed and it had an affiliated company, Ladyville Transport had its runs taken away as shuttle from Ladyville.  That remains as is. The case has not been heard and it is still pending for a claim for damages for most of these things.”

Shoman says that the injunction in the north is still in place so the ministry can’t go ahead with plans to have National Transport or any other company shut out of the run because it was providing services in other areas. The Novelo brothers return to court on January fourth.