CCJ rules in favour of Ogle Airport name change

Mar 03, 2021 News

The Eugene F. Correia International Airport.

Kaieteur News – The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has ruled in favour of the renaming of the Ogle International Airport to Eugene F. Correia International Airport. The ruling follows an appeal filed by nine local airline service operators who were against the name change in the first place.
The operators included Air Services Limited (ASL); Domestic Airways; Hinterland Aviation; Hopkinson Mining Aviation; Jags Aviation; Oxford Aviation; Phoenix Airways; Roraima Airways, and Wings Aviation – all members of National Air Transport Association (NATA).
The group – who were represented by London House Chambers lawyers, Devindra Kissoon and Natasha Vieira – contended, among other things, that Former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson’s failure to consult with them on the name change amounted to a breach the law of fairness.
According to the group, the lack of consultation held the prospect of impacting their business.
As such, the operators sought orders to have the decision of the Minister overturned.
In a ruling yesterday, CCJ Judge, Denys Barrow, said that in making a determination in the case, the Court found that the operators were able to discuss the name change among other issues at a meeting with the Minister on November 18, 2015, following which they also provided a written brief to the Minister of all the issues discussed, including the issue of the name change.
Further, the Court found that there was nothing provided to the Court by the airline operators, which suggested that the Minister did not understand the substance of their objection.
The Court found too that the Minister did make attempts to address their concerns when he made an effort to commission a legal review of the lease. As such, the CCJ determined that “there was no need for further consultation as advanced by the appellants.”
“This was a case where the Appellants just disagreed with the merits of the Minister’s decision, of which it is common place and [for which] the law gives no remedy,” the Court added in a statement following the ruling.
The Ogle International Airport was renamed to the Eugene F. Correia International Airport on May 9, 2016, after the aviation pioneer and former Minister of Government. Prior to the CCJ, NATA had unsuccessfully sought injunctions against the name change in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
When the CCJ commenced hearing arguments in the case last month, Kissoon, who represented the airline service operators contended that it is the public authority’s duty to consult those interested before taking a decision that can impact them in a variety of ways.
“Most commonly,” he said, “the duty is generated by statute.”
He had stressed, “Not infrequently, it is generated by the duty cast by the common law upon a public authority to act fairly. The search for the demands of fairness in this context is often illumined by the doctrine of legitimate expectation; such was the source, for example, of its duty to consult the residents of a care home for the elderly before deciding whether to close it.”
However, in response to the submissions, Solicitor General attached to the Chambers of the Attorney General, Nigel Hawke, who appeared on behalf of the State, in association with State Counsel, Reanna Clarke, argued that Patterson was only obliged to accept the bona fide view of the Ogle Airport Inc. Board, which indicated that the decision was a unanimous one in relation to the name change. He argued that the board was a lawful board and all members must be assumed to have acted in relation to their fiduciary duties when the decision was made.
“There was no requirement in the act or the lease for the minister to consult with anyone regarding the unanimous decision of the board. The minister would have been taken to act arbitrarily if the board did not sanction the name change,” Hawke added.
He continued that the evidence clearly suggest that the Board of Ogle Airport Inc. gave its sanction to the name change, which underscores the fact that the board held its consultation with its members and shareholders.

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