(LOOP News): A high court has ruled that former LIAT pilots can proceed with legal action against the Gaston Browne led administration in the twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda.
These pilots, some 600 of them are seeking to get millions of dollars in severance and other payments entitled to them.
The judgement which was handed down on Thursday comes on the feels of a lawsuit filed in the Antigua High Court by Barbadian pilot Neil Cave and three other colleagues, challenging the constitutionality of Section 564(1)(a) of the Companies Amendment Act 2020.
According to that section of the act, an automatic stay of proceedings on all matters against LIAT 1974 Limited was imposed, forcing an adjournment in the 2015 high court claim by pilots.
But Cave told an interview with reporters in Bridgetown Thursday that High Court Judge Justice Marissa Robertson upheld the two key contentions of the pilots.
He ruled that the section of the Companies Act complained of was unconstitutional in that it is “over broad” and not rationally connected with the objective of the amendment, which is to allow debtors (including LIAT) to pursue rehabilitation by affording it protection from enforcement by its creditors, and therefore cannot be justifiable.
According to Cave, the judge also ruled that the section also infringed the principle of separation of powers as the automatic stay of proceedings removed new and current matters from the oversight of the court.
