HYATT TWIST

PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart is not about to let the Hyatt case go down without a fight.

Stuart, the Minister responsible for the Town and Country Planning Department, is challenging social activist and attorney-at-law David Comissiong’s application for Judicial Review of the multi-million dollar construction of a 15-storey hotel on the beach-front land, at Bay Street, St Michael.

The Prime Minister is challenging the review on the grounds that Comissiong, as merely a citizen of Barbados, does not have the standing to bring the application for Judicial Review of the green light given to the Hyatt.

Another legal development in the case is that on Monday May 8, developer Mark Maloney’s company Vision Development Inc, filed an application to the High Court requesting to be added as a party to the suit, to join the Minister responsible for Town and Country Planning as a defendant in the matter.

The substantive court case was due to be heard by Madame Justice Sonia Richards yesterday, however, it has been adjourned until Friday July 7 at 11:30 a.m., because Justice Richards is on
vacation.

Speaking to the media on the steps of the Supreme Court yesterday, Comissiong stated that he is not fazed by the Prime Minister’s challenge, pointing out that as recently as Monday, the Judicial Committee of the English Privy Council delivered a judgement on a Trinidad matter.

“This is a case in which a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago took the Police Service Commission to Court to review the actions of the Police Service Commission in some appointments that had been made to the Commission.

“The question that the Trinidad Courts had to determine was whether a citizen had such a right. So the Trinidad Court Appeal held that a citizen did have such a right. That position was upheld by the Privy Council just yesterday,” he said.

Comissiong argued that “the reality is that this area of the law has developed in recent times and whereas, many years ago, there were court rulings that one had to have a personal legal right or interest in the matter before one would have the standing to take the matter to court, the modern development of the law is in favour of a citizen’s right”.

The attorney added that once a citizen has a sufficient interest in a matter, that individual has the power, and the right, to apply for Judicial Review.

“So I am very comfortable about where these issues are concerned,” Comissiong declared.

Comissiong said he filed the Judicial Review on the grounds that it is in the best interest of the country to have a Judge of the Supreme Court examine the project and its implications for the physical, social, cultural and heritage environment of Barbados.
(AH)