Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A DECISION will be handed down in May in the appeal brought by some Portmore residents who have challenged the imposition of a toll on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000.
The Court of Appeal, comprising Mr. Justice Seymour Panton, Mr. Justice Howard Cooke and Mrs. Justice Zaila McCalla, heard legal arguments Monday and yesterday.
Justice Panton said that although the court was swamped with cases, the decision will be handed down early next term.
COMPULSORY ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY
Attorney-at-law Oswald James, who represents the residents including four Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors, submitted on Monday that the toll amounted to compulsory acquisition of property. He argued that the toll was a breach of the residents' constitutional rights.
But Solicitor General Michael Hylton, Q.C., countered that the case seemed to be based on a misunderstanding of what the Constitution protected.
He said Section 18 of the Constitution protected citizens from having their property taken away without compensation. He said in the appellants' case, no property was being taken away and the appellants did not own the Causeway main road or bridge.
Mr. Hylton asked the court to throw out the case because the evidence clearly showed that the alternative route (via the Mandela Highway) was a reasonable one. He described the case as "factually without justification and legally without merit."
