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  by pltm
• Sep 28, 2016
• 0

(PLTM) - Former Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA), Mr. Claude Skelton Cline was successful in his first step in the legal process by having the High Court grant leave to carry out a Judicial Review hearing in his case against the government.

While the nature of his application is not yet unsealed by the High Court Registry or the court, BVI Platinum News understands that yesterday, Tuesday, September 27th, Justice Vicki Ann Ellis handed down a decision where she granted Skelton Cline leave to file a Judicial Review.

The hearing and the ruling was not opened to the public, which is usually the case at this stage of the court process.

Skelton Cline is being represented by the law firm Hunte & Co, and the government by the Attorney General (AG) Chambers. Both parties declined to provide a comment up to time of publication.

While proceedings for the granting of a Judicial Review are not opened to the public, the Judicial Review hearing itself is in most instances public.

Should the proceedings be public, then one can expect a flow of information surrounding Skelton Cline's tenure as the Director and information surrounding the controversial cruise pier and landside project.

It is believed that to safeguard sensitive information, government may eventually settle the case outside of the court.

Now that leave has been granted by the court, Skelton Cline through his lawyer will have to begin filing the necessary applications to undertake the review.

Skelton Cline, a former National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate, has not provided much information about his pending lawsuit against government. However, he stated that he needed to protect his name and ensure that requisite compensation is had for the work that he has done and the procurement process at the Ports during his tenure, which ended November 2015.

He told reporters in April that the NDP government failed to properly compensate him for the magnificent work he and his team did by delivering the cruise pier project, with failure to renew his contract as MD and in not defending him over allegations of wrongdoings, even though they have the information which he claims will show that everything was done above board.

Skelton Cline told reporters that he was only disclosing nine percent of what he knows about the project.