Appeal Court disclosure on demolition of buildings on highway lands

PIPELINE construction firm, API Pipeline Construction has successfully petitioned the Court of Appeal to order the State to hand over documents relating to the demolition of buildings on land acquired by the Government for the Point Fortin highway expansion project.

API had requested the documents as part of its claim against the State for compensation but its application was denied by Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams.

In presiding over API’s appeal on Monday, Justices of Appeal Gregory Smith and Ronnie Boodoosingh overturned the judge’s decision and ordered the disclosure of the documents.

“We see a strong argument they are relevant,” Smith said in delivering the court’s oral decision.

He said they were of the view the matter for which disclosure was sought to prove acquisition, was not clearly pleaded by API.

In API’s claim, it was argued that other buildings on its land were also destroyed when the State took acquired it for the project.

He said if the alleged actions, as claimed by API, proved to be correct it could point to an act of possession that the State did enter the land and acquired it.

“The documents are directly relevant to an issue in the case,” he said, while admitting it would have been better for it to be specifically pleaded to give the State an opportunity to respond.

As a result, he granted both sides permission to file amplified witness statements on the new issue of the demolition of third-party buildings on the acquired lands.

API in its substantive claim alleges the Ministry of Works and Transport entered the lands without compensating it and as a result of being dispossessed of the lands, has suffered losses.

API was represented by attorney Justin Phelps while the State was represented by Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes and Ravindra Nanga.