CCJ rules in favor of Belize Government

The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Wednesday ruled in favor of the Belize government in its application to reduce the interest rate contained in a certificate issued by the Court.

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The certificate was made following an arbitral award made against the government. A rate of interest of 17 per cent compounded monthly was initially awarded in the 2013 arbitration award of BZ$36 million made by a tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration against Belize in favor of the Belize Bank.

In November last year, the CCJ gave permission for the Bank to have the arbitration award enforced as if it were a judgment.

Following the CCJ’s ruling, the Bank requested a certificate under the Crown Proceedings Act from the CCJ’s Registrar to detail the amount of money owed to the Bank by Belize. The certificate was duly issued in January 2018.

According to the certificate, the debt stood at BZ$91.6 million as at 15 December 2017, with interest “continuing to accrue at 17 per cent compounded monthly until the date of payment”.

But the Belize government applied to have that rate reduced from the date of the certificate.

Its team of lawyers, including Dr. Ben Juratowitch QC, and the Solicitor General, Nigel Hawke, argued that the applicable interest rate was the six per cent permitted under Belize law on all judgments in Belize. However, the Bank, which was represented by attorneys Eamon Courtenay SC and Angeline Welsh, countered by suggesting that the CCJ’s November 2017 order was final.

But in granting the government’s application, the CCJ noted that, since the certificate was in effect the judgment on the award, the repetition of the award’s terms in the certificate was inadvertent.

It said the contractual debt for principal and interest merged in the judgment debt upon which interest of six per cent became payable under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act.