Appeals Court rules Marin and Coye case should be heard

The respondents in a suit brought by attorney Lois Young-Barrow, on behalf of the Attorney General, have not yet decided whether or not to appeal a ruling by the Belize Court of Appeals to the Caribbean Court of Justice.

The two men, former Minister of Natural Resources Florencio Marin, Sr., and former Minister of Health Joe Coye, were being sued under a heretofore obscure tort, alleging that they conspired to deprive the Government of Belize of revenue by illegally transferring land for a price which they knew was less than the value. Lois Young-Barrow has claimed that what were undeveloped swamp lots with no easement to the subdivision was sold by GOB for $4,000, and should have been sold for $19,460.

At a hearing before Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh on June 19^th, 2009, the CJ questioned the appropriateness of the use of the tort of misfeasance by the Government to bring suit against former officeholders, and after hearing arguments from both sides, ruled that in his learned opinion it was not.

In a judgment following an appeal by Lois Young-Barrow to the Belize Court of Appeals, the three judges who heard the arguments disagreed with the Chief Justice that the Attorney General was not competent to lay claim for damages using the tort of misfeasance.

In a narrow ruling the justices seem to agree that perhaps the weight of the allegations over-ruled the consideration of the appropriateness of the tort.

Joe Coye had vehemently refuted the allegations as totally untrue, and in his opinion the suit is malicious and scurrilous. The suit was brought by the Lois Young-Barrow on behalf of the Barrow administration only after almost a year of effort failed to find fraud in the Caribbean Shores land development project in question, and they could not continue to support a caution that had halted the continued disbursement of lots to persons who had paid for them.

Almost immediately following the 2008 General Elections the land in question was put under a caution, and all transactions at the entire Lands Department was suspended for several months supposedly while an “audit” was carried out. To date neither the Department nor the Ministry nor the executive have reported to the electorate as to the result of this “audit”.

As then area representative for the constituency, in 2007 Coye had spearheaded a project to turn over nearly 10 acres of swamp land into usable lots to constituents who paid the Government of Belize $4,000 for each lot. Collectively they had also paid to fill these lots to 3 feet above sea level, ensure access, and to provide streets, drainage, utilities and other necessary infrastructure.

Coye regards the allegations of undervaluation and depriving the government of revenue through some nebulous conspiracy as spurious simply because even the attorney bringing suit as well as other members of the current Barrow administration Cabinet had reportedly paid less for land in far more developed stage.

In fact just last year, the current minister of land had illegally transferred seven lots abutting the project to cronies of current Caribbean Shores area representative Carlos Perdomo, purportedly for $2,500.00 per lot.

The lots were transferred and sold without the knowledge and the acquiescence of their owners, the Belize Bank and Belize Healthcare Partners, apparently in the mistaken belief that they were part of the land development project.

They had been filled and now had street access and access to utilities.

If the present minister of lands could sell filled lots with street, drainage and utilities access that are physically adjacent or geographical conjoined to the lots in question for $2,500.00, how come the sale of unfilled, swamp lots, with no street, drainage or utility access for $4,000.00 was undervalued and deprived the Government of Belize of revenue?

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