Court ruling paves way to make Lissa Lane public
(CNS): As a result of the Court of Appeal judgment relating to plans to create a new public road in Boatswains Bay, planning ministry officials have confirmed that work will start on developing Lissa Lane in the near future. The court raised concerns about the transparency of the process in this case but the ruling paves the way for the government to make the disputed access an official road.
The lane in West Bay has been at the centre of a community and legal dispute for several years but this was resolved by the court last month. The appellants had argued that the proper procedure to acquire land for a public road had not been followed and that they were being deprived of their land. However, the court found that the proper procedure was followed and that the appellants did have an opportunity to make their objections.
Making Lissa Lane a public by-way will provide property access to all the adjoining landowners, resolve the landlock issue and facilitate utility access. Deputy Chief Officer Tristan Hydes said the planning ministry would be notifying the landowners and would ensure that the policy and process are published in the public domain, as directed by the court.
“As the Cayman Islands population continues to grow, so do our needs as a nation, whether it’s the need for new transportation strategies, housing projects or public utilities,” Hydes said. “It is important the public understands how the process works when the government declares an intention in the public’s interest that land may need to be acquired for public projects. The process is designed to be fair, easy to understand and transparent.”
In this case, the court found that the ministry had not been fully transparent when it began the process almost four years ago to gazette and create the public road. The appeal court said that the law must be “accessible” and “foreseeable” with a “transparent statement of the procedure”, which was not done in this case.
The creation of a public road should also address the long-running feud which has seen some of the landowners involved face criminal charges. Former Cabinet minister Mike Adam and his son were charged with common assault in 2021 while his neighbour, Wilson Mendoza, was jailed for seven days last year after defying a court order and blocking Adam’s access to his property. However as a result of a number of conflicting issues that made the judge’s order invalid he was never admitted to jail.
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Category: development, Local News
government should turn all easements/ right of ways to public roads.
Great idea. Let’s turn the whole island into one big dumping ground.
The scale of side road dumping should be viewed as a national disgrace.
Is there any substantial evidence to PROVE (hearsay is not enough evidence) that Mr. Mendoza was really in jail for 7 days????? If there is I would like to see this. Otherwise I find it very hard to believe that Mr. Mendoza actually SPENT 7 days in jail. Please provide us the evidence to support this claim. Thanks.
Are you suggesting there was judicial interference to waive the court order? HMP Northward would handle the guest register.
Some times I have to wonder about half of you folks and your questions. Because I asked for proof to be shown and you come here asking me if I am making a suggestion????
Since WHEN did it become a crime to ask for the evidence to be provided?
Look. If you cannot focus on what I am asking then please leave your ignorance out the door.
Have a good a day.
Who actually decides where roads go? Is it the NRA? the NRA Board? The Ministry? or Cabinet? Who decided where the EWA should go? Where the landowners consulted prior to the gazette? Where are the costings and comparison costings of alternative routes, has an estimated been done for the likely compensation to be paid been done yet? Until this is done an EIA is worthless. Cart before the horse me thinks?
The order of operations for road building in the Cayman Islands is:
– strip the land, leaving utility poles in situ
– roughly level the area
– lay concrete curbing
– tear out curbing laid too soon
– add more fill, possibly too much to create a jump
– lay curbing again
– pave roughly levelled area
– tear up paving and curbing
– remove that utility pole from the middle of the road
– relay a sort of improved level base, but still not flat
– once again add more curbing
– repave
– hire road engineer
Two weeks after final tarmac goes down, send in Flow/Logic/C3 to cut a trench down the middle of the road, one at a time.
You forgot one very important step:
– Leave unpaved roughly levelled area sit for 2 years, to allow weather and traffic to create potholes, to be incorrectly filled/ repaired after final paving.
I must say…
As a result of the Court of Appeal judgment relating to plans to create a new public road in Boatswains Bay, planning ministry officials have confirmed that work will start on developing Lissa Lane in the near future “after an out-of-court settlement from both parties.”
Although I do agree former Cabinet minister Mike Adam and his two sons were charged with common assault in 2021 and Mike Adam solely in 2018, someone has been misinformed because I was NEVER jailed for seven days last year after defying a court order and blocking Adam’s access to his property.
CNS: Mendoza jailed for 7 days for blocking Adams’ access
So there are two public news articles claiming you went to jail for seven days but you claim you never did? If so, then why weren’t you sent to jail?
In its simplest form, because the Court Order stemmed from a civil matter not criminal as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was not involved and there was no name or title of an offence charged in the underlying accusatory instrument of the arrest warrant.
Further, the DPP is responsible for all criminal proceedings brought within the Cayman Islands and is the Government’s principal legal adviser on criminal matters. I was never advised of being charged with a criminal offence or advised a file was submitted for a decision to charge in accordance with section 82 of the Police Law to the DPP.
The contempt of court including the criminal contempt is not an offence within the meaning of Code of Criminal Procedure (2019 Revision) (Penal Code). Any contempt applications or on the court acting of its own motion which are not so pursued should be considered to be an abuse of process of the courts and will be liable to being struck out as they are used to bully and cajole an opposing party in litigation.
If a penal notice is attached to the court’s order, which there was, criminal standard of proof is required for an alleged breach. Benefit of doubt as of right, is to be given to the accused when there is equal possibility of the accused being guilty or not guilty. Litigation in the Cayman Islands is adversarial in nature and the standard of proof in civil matters is on the balance of probabilities not beyond reasonable doubt.
All that to really say nothing.
The long and short of it is while you might have only actually served 24-48 hours but you were definitely sentenced to 7. Lol
Let me rephrase it since you don’t seem to comprehend…
A judge must determine the cases before him or her according to law. He or she must not be deflected by desire for popularity or fear of criticism and must hear a case on the evidence and in accordance with the principles of natural justice. A judge is expected to be competent in the discharge of his or her judicial duties, both generally and pursuant to Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, Freedoms, and Responsibilities comprising Part 1 of the Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009.
In a nutshell, the Judge made an error of law, an error regarding the facts, and/or abused of his discretion.
I was NEVER EVER jailed for seven days or day (or on any given day, hour, minute, or second) last year (or this year or any given year) after defying a (civil) court order and blocking Adam’s access to his property.
THE END
Except for the part where you were sentenced to seven days.
Evidently Mr. Mendoza was sentence for 7 days, but has more power than a judge to not be able to go to jail. What would be the purpose of someone being sentence if they don’t have to go to jail? Why the Rule of Law? It’s called intervention.
He was not in jail of there is no criminal record to prove it. Stop slandering the man.
Instead of pushing him to prove he wasn’t. Why don’t you search on the judicial system on the internet for his record to see if he was truly sentenced.
Stop making a mockery of him if you yourself cannot prove that he was sent to prison.
When you accuse someone you need to learn to bring the facts with you to the table. Apparently I understood what he said and you are proving that you cannot comprehend what he is saying.
So if you BELIEVE he went to jail then show us the public the receipts!
It is simple as that. Stop bullying the gentleman and SHOW us the evidence I’m black and white that he was sentenced! That is all we want to see. Hearsay is not sufficient enough for you to say he did go to prison. Without that documentation then this claim is FALSE.
So confusing? The court found that Govt had not been fully transparent but its still OK for the road to go ahead as the court found they had followed procedure?
CIG should Gazette all of the public easements across contentious absentee landlord properties, including all access roads across Dart’s derelict Dragon Bay Lands, formerly known as Safehaven. Landowners, members, and stakeholders in North Sound Club, Crystal Harbour, Lalique Quay, Holiday Inn, shouldn’t be held hostage to Dart’s failing property management oversight. The CIG needs to start caring about the larger impacts of aligning government loyalty to this vulture investor in terms of degraded voter quality of life.
They should gazette them all. Bad neighbors deny people right to their property. My neighbor is denying me the right to have my water on my property and puts stuff in the road.