The Port's management says that they tried to establish a healthy business relationship with Norwegian. They assert that this backfired when the cruise company baited them into buying a multi-million dollar piece of dredging equipment which ended up being inadequate. The Port also asserts that NCL owed them several hundred thousand dollars for unpaid services which they provided. So now, they're trying to urge the Supreme Court order NCL to pay them several million dollars in damages due to the losses they suffered.

This issue is will be litigated over 3-day trial, which began this morning, but what we've been able to find out while sitting in the trial is that back in 2014, the management of the Port leased a dredge to NCL for the massive dredging that needed to be done to prepare NCL's mega cruise Port, Harvest Caye.

2 of the Port's subsidiary companies, Banana Enterprises, and Southern Dredging Company, entered into this business arrangement, but both companies agreed that this dredger was too small to carry out the work needed. So, in 2015, the Port and NCL entered into negotiations to acquire another dredger from Tampa, Florida that should have been able to do the job. As we understand it, the Port's management saw it as a win-win for both sides. This dredger would be used to work on NCL's berthing channel for Harvest Caye, and when that job was done, the dredger would be used to work on the Port's own channel to accommodate bigger ships. So, after the two sides worked out all the contractual details, the Port entered into a commercial loan to purchase the 2.5 million US dollar piece of equipment. The understanding was that NCL would hand over the equipment after they completed their channel and that the Port would take over control of the dredger.

Well, it turns out this dredger was inadequate to do the job for NCL, and they ended up having to push their Harvest Caye project back because of it. They eventually had to hire an international company to finish up. They did eventually hand over the very expensive but-useless dredger to the Port, which also had to seek international help to dredge their channel as well. Remember as well, that they took out a commercial loan to purchase the equipment.

That's one part of the dispute where the Port management feels it was jilted, but the second part is unpaid arrears of over million dollars that they say NCL owes them to lease the useless dredger that they purchase from Tampa. The two sides can't agree to what that sum was, and so, they've turned to Justice Courtney Abel to adjudicate this dispute.

The Port is being represented by Senior Counsel Said Musa and Rodwell Williams, while NCL's Belize Island Holding's Limited is being represented Senior Counsel Magali Marin-Young. It was a very long day in court when two officials from Port's management were cross-examined by Marin-Young. When the court adjourned the matter this evening, we got an opportunity to speak briefly with the Port's Managing Director. Here's what he had to say: