On Monday's newscast, we told you how Justice Sonya Young awarded $260,000 in damages to the family of 5 year-old Brenae Timmons.
She's the toddler from Belize City who suffered severe brain injury in January of 2016 when the huge iron gate at the Samuel Haynes Institute fell on top of her.
She continues to recover from that incident, but even months after several surgeries and rehabilitation, she may never truly get back to where she was before she was nearly crushed to death by the gate.
As we told you, the judge has ordered contractor Brian Espat, who installed the gate, and the Pickstock Development Association, which owns the property, to pay this money. The association's Executive Director is Barbara Elrington, wife of Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington.
The non-profit organization was set up to assist those needy residents in Elrington's Pickstock constituency, and he told us today, that he doesn't think the Association will be able to pay the Timmons family that quantum. He agrees however that Brenae and her family deserves that money. Here's what he had to say when we asked him about the ruling against his wife's association:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Area Representative, Pickstock
"Pickstock development association occupied the piece of land and we have it under a lease from the government of Belize. One of the government agencies offered us a fence and the fence contract to build the fence was given to a man named Bryan Espat, really we had nothing to do with it. The gate and the fence was really huge and after he had hung the fence, kids started to play on the fence. The child got very seriously injured and we did everything in our power to help the child, we were right there. I image she will have some after effects from it and the sum awarded by the court did not seem to me to be inordinate. Problem is that pickstock development association is non-profit organization, we function from resources that are given to us and our only purpose is to try to improve the level of education of the children that are in constituency and neighboring constituencies."
"We will try to see how we will find the funds. If the institute is forced to close its doors because we don't have the money to pay for it, it's going to hurt hundreds of kids. I know this one that has been injured and I'm saying that the child needs to get assistance but if we can't find the funds and Mr. Bryan Espat doesn't come up with the funds it will simply mean that the Samuel Haynes institute will have to close down and we are now servicing in excess of 150 kids every day. I don't think the judge was inordinate in the award that she made and I thought she applied the basic legal principle. We theoretically own the premises, although we did not invite the parents there, the parent worked there."
Daniel Ortiz
"Mr. Kareem Musa has indicated that he will first give the association and the other defendant an opportunity to see how you will address payment and if you don't pay he will come after enforcement."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"But I'm saying to you first of all, it's only a few dollars, 250 thousand whatever it is, it's a just money and I don't think it is inordinate, I think it is reasonable given the trauma that the poor child went through. We are a non-profit organization so we don't earn no money, we get money from people who give to us but we also try to do some fundraisers and to the extent that we can fundraise we will try to pay it off. But I'm saying the only measure Musa will be able to take is a measure which will lead to the closure of the facility and if the facility closes, it means that the entire constituency and all the neighboring constituencies will be deprived of a service which is desperately needed given the impecunious and poverty stricken position of these constituencies on the Southside. So yes we will be trying to make an effort to help the child by trying to find the funds but if we can't find the funds, the child won't get it from anywhere else and if it is necessary to sell the assets we have there to provide the funds, simply means that area, the pickstock area which is doing quite well in mind, will deprived of very vital services to the community."
Kareem Musa, the attorney for the Timmons family, says that he will seek to reach out to the defendants to try to make amicable arrangements for the payment of this judgement debt in the first instance.
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