Back in February of 2016, the Corozal businessman, Curtis Swasey, won a big judgement against BTL and the owners of Mek Mi Rich, Andre Vega and Sanjay Hotchandani. That's when Justice Courtney Abel ruled that the gameshow's owners stole his idea of lottery texting, and got rich at his expense, with the help of BTL.
BTL was definitely not satisfied with the decision because the judge found that persons within the telephone company breeched confidentially agreement that they signed. BTL insisted that they did not give his idea away to the owners of Mek Mi Rich. So, they filed an appeal, and in response, Swasey filed a cross-appeal. They want to ask the Court of Appeal to consider if the award of damages was enough. Justice Abel awarded Swasey $25,000, which BTL had to pay, but Swasey and his attorney did not believe that he was duly compensated with that award.
The Court of Appeal called the case up today for case management, and decided that at the next sitting in October, this case will be heard. After the conference before the judges was done, we spoke with Swasey's attorney outside of court:
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Kurtis Swasey
"There are actually 3 appeals which have been consolidated before the court of appeal. The first of course comes from my client Mr. Kurtis Swasey who feels like the damages that were awarded to him of 25 thousand dollars were not sufficient and therefore he is appealing the quantum and it is hoped that at the court of appeal level, he will get a higher award in damages for the breech of confidence, because as you would recall this was an instance where BTL and the allegation is by Mr. Swasey that BTL and MMR Belize limited partnered together to use his ideas and in fact breeched his confidence. So, this is a claim that stems from that, interestingly enough though MMR Belize limited who my client was accusing of using his idea has not appealed so it is questionable why BTL even followed through with this appeal in the first place but I think it has to do with the fact that they are the ones who ended up having to pay the 25 thousand dollars."
Reporter
"Have they indicated that, or do you have any idea at least why they are appealing."
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Kurtis Swasey
"They are not satisfied with the Supreme Court decision, they do feel that this is Mr. Swasey's idea, the lottery texting is not Mr. Swasey's idea and so they are not satisfied with the judgement handed down by the honorable Justice Abel and therefore they are appealing."
Reporter
"Sir aren't you risking sort of rolling the dice on this case because it could go either way. It could be that your client gets a higher damage award, but the court could also rule against him and throw out the decision of the Supreme Court."
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Kurtis Swasey
"Well the way that appeals work Daniel is that they would appeal in any event, so there is no rolling of any dice. So even if Mr. Swasey did not appeal on the quantum, BTL would never the less have appeal the matter. So it would have ended up here in any event and so it's a good time for the court to appeal to reconsider the judge's decision and to look at all weigh on his mind and coming to his decision."
Reporter
"Is it a consideration that the court could overrule the decision of the Supreme Court?"
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Kurtis Swasey
"Anything can happen in the court of appeal even to CCJ as we have seen in many cases that have gone to the higher courts, so there is always that possibility, that is litigation and there is a risk in litigation at all times."
We'll be there in October for the full Appeal hearing, and we'll tell you how it goes.
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