JPS appeals licence ruling
Published:Thursday | August 30, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator
The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has filed an appeal contending that Supreme Court judge Bryan Sykes erred when he ruled that the exclusive licence granted to the light and power company was not valid.
Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman, who represented the claimants in the class action suit, said yesterday that he would be filing a counter notice of appeal.
He said he would be asking the Court of Appeal to find that Sykes, having correctly ruled that the minister had no power to grant an all-island exclusive licence to the JPS, erred in law in failing to hold that the present licence was illegal, null and void and of no effect.
Yesterday, attorney-at-law Marvalyn Taylor-Wright, who is also representing the claimants, filed in the Supreme Court a bill of costs against JPS amounting to $24 million.
JPS is also asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the legal costs which Sykes had awarded to the claimants, Dennis Meadows, Betty Ann Blaine and Cyrus Rousseau.
Queen's Counsel Michael Hylton is representing JPS which is appealing against Sykes' ruling that the term of JPS's all-island electric licence, which grants it the exclusive right to transmit electricity, is invalid. It is also challenging the judge's ruling that Section 3 of the Electric Lighting Act does not permit the minister to grant a licence on an exclusive basis.
LICENCE VALID
Although Sykes ruled in July that the licence was invalid, he also concluded that the minister had the lawful authority to grant a licence to one operator to provide electricity, whether generation, distribution and retailing for the whole island. He then ruled that the licence granted to JPS was therefore valid.
High electricity costs had led disgruntled customers to challenge the exclusive licence granted to JPS by the then minister of mining and energy in 2001.
Wildman said yesterday that he would be asking the Court of Appeal to rule that the judge misconstrued the statute in holding that the minister could grant an all-island licence to the JPS under the Electric Lighting Act.
"If the Court of Appeal agrees with us, then all benefits that the JPS derived under the licence from March 2001 will have to be given back to the people of Jamaica," Wildman said.