Premier moves to form committee to decide on Willock’s legal fees
Premier Andrew Fahie has moved to appoint a special parliamentary committee to determine what permission Speaker Julian Willock received when he filed a court injunction against attorneys with the Commission of Inquiry, and whether this legal action was warranted.
The committee will comprise three to five persons and must have at least one member from each of the four political parties currently represented in the House of Assembly (HOA).
The four existing political organisations are the governing Virgin Islands Party (VIP), the opposing National Democratic Party (NDP), Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM), and Progressives United (PU).
Who will chair the committee?
Members of the committee will determine its own chairperson.
Meanwhile, Premier Fahie said the government has already selected its single representative. He did not say who.
The findings of the select committee would help to determine whether taxpayers foot the legal bill of up to $121,000 that Willock was ordered to pay in the Supreme Court.
The Premier presented the House with three possible outcomes from which the committee must decide.
The three possible outcomes
The first is that “there was no expressed permission by the House of Assembly but the Honourable Speaker acted in his official capacity and in good faith relying on the assumption of permission being at least implied and consistent with his duty. And the action is deemed warranted and with merit and, as a result, the payment of costs would be approved by the House of Assembly,” Fahie said.
The second is that “there was no expressed permission by the House of Assembly but the Honourable Speaker acted in his official capacity and in good faith relying on the assumption of permission being at least implied and consistent with his duty. And the action is deemed warranted and with merit, but the payment of costs should not be approved by the House of Assembly.”
The other possible outcome is that no expressed permission was given to Willock but he acted in his official capacity as Speaker to file the injunction on assumption that permission will be given. If this is the case, the action is deemed not warranted and without merit. Therefore, the HOA should not consider the matter and Willock ought to pay his legal fees.
Two months to decide
The committee will have no more than two months to make their recommendation to the House of Assembly.
The debate on Premier Fahie’s motion to set up the committee is ongoing in the HOA.
Meanwhile, the Premier’s ‘committee motion’ differs from the initial motion that was on the order paper seen by the House last Thursday. That initial motion simply sought to request the HOA to “consider it just and proper that the Honourable Speaker should not personally be responsible for payment of the costs of an action that he instituted on behalf of this Honourable House”.
Protest and petition
News of that initial motion had caused staunch protests outside the HOA by residents this week. The protests followed an online petition which raised well in excess of 1,200 signatures, demanding that Willock be made to pay his own legal costs.
The territory remains on edge as residents wait to see the outcome of the select parliamentary committee.
Second District Representative, Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull had previously revealed to BVI News that no discussions or debate happened in the House regarding the filing of the injunction.
Turnbull told our news team he received an email from the Speaker that he was going to file the injunction but there was no meeting to seek approval from the House.
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The other possible outcome is that no expressed permission was given to Willock. He DID NOT act in his official capacity as Speaker to file the injunction and could NOT have assumed that permission would have been given. He acted recklessly.
If this is the case, the action is deemed not warranted and without merit. Therefore, the HOA should not consider the matter and Willock ought to pay his legal fees.
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Stop playing games. We all know what happened here. It’s clear from the courts’ proceedings that he did not have authorization to seek an injunction on his own….authorization from the government proper, authorization from the House of Assembly, nor authorization from the Attorney General.
No..he went on an ego driven power trip consistent with his personality, stepped outside his authority and filed that injunction thinking he was above everyone else and as he would put it, “equal”.
He had an opportunity to submit to the judge hearing the case whose authority he relied upon to file the injunction, and he failed to submit the requested information by 4 pm on a specific day as requested by the judge. This led to the judgment by the court that he should pay the legal fees.
So, lets not play games here. This ego driven man created this mess, and BVI taxpayers should not have to pay a penny for his arrogance.
Exactly my sentiments,!!!
The FOURTH option
One thing you got wrong, was blonde not carrying out the wishes of his boss when he did the deed?, why do you think he is fighting so hard to obsolve him of his payment responsibility,
One good example of why the COI is here!!! Committee members picked will have a majority that agree with the person picking the committee
Fully agree with you. Yaysayers will be picked for the committee and then the Premier will claim it was not his decision but the committee’s.
Don’t need no damn committee. The gentleman must assume the responsibility for his depts.
Meanwhile, such would be more irresponsible spending that has so characterized this administration, when the corner stones of the society, education, infrastructure and other are being none prioritized.
CHUPES!!! COMMITTEE FOR WHAT? THE JUDICIARY DONE PASS JUDGEMENT! LET THE SPEAKER GO PAY HIS BILL. WHY YOU SO DARN ADAMANT ABOUT SPENDING MONIES NEEDED FOR EDUCATION AND CIVIL SERVANTS.
The narrative has been determine by the layout of mr fahie working committee terms of reference he is alluding to, and time will put this in abeyance until forgo9by protesters.
Is that the three possible options? I have the missing one…no permission was granted to the speaker who acted in his personal/private capacity since the AG (who was never consulted) was the only one to have filed any such motion on behalf of the BVI Government.
The premiere seems bent on paying Willock fees.
Theres no need for any committee. As determined by the Court, the speaker acted in his personal capacity and should foot the bill. If he has an issue with the court’s decision, then he should appeal the ruling.
The Premier should not bring such motion to the House, nor should the House establish any committee to address same. The HOA must respect the ruling of the Court.
is this article a prank? a committee to do what? how can this HOA be dissolved like now. I’m so sick of this guy
This is nonsense. The Court already found that Willock did NOT act in his official capacity. This clearly shows that Mr. Fahie has no respect for the rule of law if those are the three possible outcomes he is putting before this so-called committee. The Attorney General needs to stand by the position they previously took that Willock did not get permission to bring the action.
Members of the committee, stand up and say you are going to abide by the ruling of the court. It’s time for this charade to end.
LET WILLOCK APPEAL IF HE FELT HE ACTED IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AND THE RULING OF THE COURT IS WRONG.
He can go to the Court of Appeal. The members of the COA are not “friends” with Hickinbotom or any of the COI counsel.
#soangry
Its either he had permission or not. Committee for what!? If you gonna go against the will of the people and go against the ruling of the court and do what you want anyway and don’t care what the people that put you there say or think about it just hurry up and do it. From playing smart with committee… I bet that this “committee” is going to decide that the tax payers should pay for it.
Maybe adding 2 taxpayers from the public? After all, they have a vested interest in the matter.
Let the half a lawyer pay his bill, he was challenging lawyers while he is not even law assistant. Let him pay for his ignorance
He just trying to buy time
People only think they smart when they think the people they are dealing with are stupid… Andrew and his smartness will come out on the wrong side of this…
Ok, so let me ask, who paid silk legal for filing that same injunction, is it the government or was it the speaker personally?.
You are correct. This 121000 are only the cost of the other side and the Attorney General. Willock also needs to pay the costs of Silk Law, they didn’t represent him for free. So that is another hefty bill the taxpayer is forced to pay.
It is against the people’s wishes for their money to be misused. It is against the court’s findings that Willock acted personally. It is against the AG’s own confirmation that Willock acted without her consent. Where is the AG in all this anyway. Being away or silent does not excuse her from her role in allowing this committee nonsense. The abuse of power is great and glaring. A people pleaser only has their own best interest at heart. Again, he is playing the people of this territory for fools. The power needs to be taken away now. Things are out of hand. The members of the HOA need to speak up now OR the whole House needs to be dissolved.
If one falls, they all fall!
What a waste of time. Court said he must….he must pay!
If he has a problem then he should get some real silk and appeal
It seems that the legislature has taken over the role of the courts.the judge has ruled in the matter and if the premier had doubts on the ruling he ddhould have appealed.
ayo need a committee to tell someone NO! what a joke
I read this article and really cannot believe the lengths to which this Government will go to achieve, their agenda.
Hon. Justice Jack, of the Commercial Court which Mr. Willock petitioned, ordered him to pay the legal fees of his aborted injunction personally, with reasons given. That was the judgment of the Court.
Move number 2, the Government brought a motion to the House of Assembly, Our House, for the Government to pay those legal fees, against the Judgment of the Court.
Move number 3, the people voiced their displeasure about this move as this was something mandated by the Court and the Court’s ruling should be followed, or appealed if displeased. They marched outside the House of Assembly and delivered a petition of over 1,200 signatures to the Premier and Leader of the Opposition that the judgment should stand and Mr. Willock pays his legal fees.
Move number 4, the motion was postponed and alas a new motion was moved for the forming of a Committee to rule on this matter.
The last time I checked, the Court of Appeal, headed by our very own Dame Janice Pereira, Chief should be the ‘body’ that appeals an order of the Commercial Court of the Virgin Islands, not the House of Assembly or any committee that has been designated by the Hon. Premier.
It makes you ask yourself, if the Speaker, Mr. Willock’s, injunction was successful, would he have expected the Chairman of the COI to act on the resulting judgment as handed down? I think we all know the answer to that question, don’t we?
It behooves the present Government and any coming behind to allow the Courts’ rulings to stand. Let the separation of powers of the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary to stand in this country.
To do contrary will only invite anarchy.
Any Government ignoring the separation of powers and the voice of the People should be removed from the House of Assembly forthwith.
The House of assembly has more power than a high court judge. Take your matter to The House when the Judge don’t rule in your favour
No committee need to be formed! The Premier need to pay his bill..since the speaker seem to be working hand in hand with the Premier.What the heck is going on in this place? We need Godly leadership..these fly by night fools got to go!
The Premier need not to pay the bill. If he does, then its tax payers money that will be used. What should happen is that Andrew Fahie in his personal capacity should assist Willock in his personal capacity to foot the bill.
Then again, why the bill is do high (and most likely it’s expected to increase further)?
The speakers choices for non-payment of his court ordered legal fees are committal(jail) or commence the application process to the Court of Appeal. The Premier is out of order and control. The HOA is not liable or involved with any of the speaker’s failed personal court proceedings.
Doesn’t the fact that he was ordered to pay ALL legal fees confirm that he was WRONG? So the Premier bringing it to the HOA does what? Make it right? He was WRONG because he went against the AG’s advice and now HOA should pay? What would setting up a Committee do when you are essentially admitting that he is indeed wrong because the motion is to PAY THE FEES! We are not stupid Andrew Fahie, we are not stupid.
the great esteemed one to ever hold that position in the BVI’S history / he gotten away with his personal war with VANTERPOOL , SQUANDERING hundreds of thousands of
? on a Trickidadian attorney who played him like an idiot and guess who had to stop him ?
ANOTHER SET OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS. Two months down the line everyone don’t forget and it slide right through. He is counting on it. Then you hear the income tax increase or the NHI increase and you paying for it without realizing that is what is happening. People WAKE UP
If you putting a select committee in place how are already deciding what the possible outcome is? Oh you’re looking that he acted in his official capacity and you think we eat our school fees. You already locked the special select committee. Oh you have all the brains cause you are the Premier
So can I come to you Andrew to help me pay the 2000 a month in rent I giving the pair park every month and not one dollar in sales ? When yall telling the public lies knowing that the passengers not allowed to shop