Defendants still resist verdict in wall case
It’s never over till it’s over … and that familiar saying appears to be the theme for the legal battle over the boardwalk walls at the Fort Street Tourism Village. The latest development in the case is that on behalf of the Port Authority, the Attorney General has filed for a stay of the Chief Justice’s decision that the walls must come down. According to Solicitor General Tanya Longsworth-Herwanger, the grounds for the request are two fold: if the judgment were to be executed now, it would essentially nullify the appeal case set for April if the Justices decide to overrule the CJ’s order. The SolGen says the Port is also concerned that the Brown Sugar Marketplace and Habourview companies are not compliant with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. But today, the management of Brown Sugar rejected that claim, maintaining that following a meeting with the Port Commissioner on April second, their fences have been raised to eight feet, razor wire has been added along Angel Lane and they’ve agreed to use Fort Point Security to oversee the property.
Christian Riveroll, Manager, Brown Sugar Marketplace
“We have done work to become compliant and make the walls come down but he has not come to see us and so now I hear he’s applying for a stay which doesn’t make any sense cause he’s not communicating with me to find out the work that we have done.”
Janelle Chanona
“What do you think is going on?”
Christian Riveroll
“I don’t—that’s what I want to know, what is going on. I don’t know if they are playing games. Are they trying to think they’re above the law? The Chief Justice has made his decision twice. He’s not given them the stay. He has said the walls must come down and it is now April seventeenth and the walls are still up. I don’t know what games they are playing. In the mean time we are hurting and we should not be because there was a decision for the walls to come down. So we are in a position whereby I guess we have to go back to court next week. But there is proof and you can see there is proof that we have done work to become compliant or at least move towards that and make the walls come down because we have done everything the Port Commissioner has asked us to do in the meantime until we can afford to purchase all the equipment necessary to become fully ISPS compliant.”
The new court action for a stay of the CJ’s decision is set for Tuesday morning before Justice John Muria.
