Judge gives Mystic lawyers one more month to make their case

In hearings in the Supreme Court on Monday, Justice David Batts asked the lawyers representing issues remaining to be settled in the case of Mystic Mountain Limited, a company in bankruptcy, to marshall more evidence for a final hearing at the end of June.

The trustee is asking the court to disallow the security of the primary creditor, while the receiver wants to press ahead with the sale of the adventure park, which sits in the hills overlooking the resort town of Ocho Rios.

“The judge did not approve the sale by the receiver today,” said one lawyer after the May 22 hearing.

“The matter continues June 26-28 to allow the parties time to file additional information for consideration by the judge,” the lawyer said.

Another lawyer representing Mystic Mountain’s creditors said the court “adjourned until June 26, 27, 28 – full days scheduled to conclude this matter then”.

Trustee Debbie-Ann Gordon is challenging the debenture held by secured creditor Sky High Holdings, while receiver Wilfred Baghaloo is asking the court to approve a process for the sale of Mystic Mountain to pay the debt owed to Sky High, a company to which hotelier Adam Stewart and businessman Ian Haynes are connected.

Baghaloo was appointed receiver after Sky High Holdings Limited, the secured creditor for Mystic Mountain Limited, exercised a denture to take over the company. Sky High holds $1.1 billion of MML’s senior secured bonds, on which the adventure company defaulted on payments in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

In previous hearings, Batts refused an application to remove Gordon as trustee of Mystic Mountain Limited, and also approved five inspectors who represent the pool of unsecured creditors that have claims on MML.

Lawyers in the various cases have said the issue of the sale of Mystic Mountain is unlikely to be heard until the court had made a decision on the trustee’s challenge of Sky High’s secured creditor status.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com