About 2 months ago, we told you about the dispute between the Belize City Council and the owner of Haylock Bus Service. Attorney Godwin Haylock wrote the Belize City Council demanding that they rescind the "permit" which they gave to bus owner Phillip Jones to run the Belama route.
That put Jones' bus company in direct competition with Haylock Bus, which is owned by Godwin Haylock's father, and they contend that City Hall usurped the authority of the Transport Board, which is the only governing body that can grant road service permits to bus operators.
The Haylock family regards the City Hall "permit" as unlawful, and because CitCo never canceled it as they demanded, they sued the Council, the Belize City Traffic Manager, bus owner Phillip Jones, the Transport Board, and the Attorney General. The case was supposed to begin today, but due to some procedural mis-steps, it has been adjourned until next month.
Outside of court, we got a chance to speak with Kareem Musa, the attorney representing Phillip Jones, about why the case could not proceed today:
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Phillip Jones
"Today was set for the hearing of the application for permission to apply for judicial review. On the last occasion, the attorney for Mr. Haylock was afforded a second chance to amend his application because he did not include the appropriate party, which is actually the Department of Transport. He has since amended his application to include the Department of Transport, but the application did not lay the proper foundation against the Department. And so, today, the matter was adjourned once again to afford the attorney an opportunity to amend once again."
Danie Ortiz, reporter
"Sir, at what point does the court say, okay, we've given you enough chances, Mr. Claimant. We can throw this out now."
Kareem Musa
"Well, as the judge rightly pointed out this morning, even if the court were to dismiss the application of Mr. Haylock, he can still bring it back the day after. So, in order for us to avoid wasting time, the judge just allowed him additional time to file his amended application. So, neither of the parties have any issue with that."
We'll keep following the lawsuit, and we'll tell you how it goes.
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