A four year dispute over a three acre parcel of land came to a conclusion at the Supreme Court on the 11th of November of this year. The dispute centered over who is the rightful owner of a 3.012 acre plot of land at mile 1½ on the Northern Highway.  In claim no 321 of 2005, the former owner of the property Formosa Investment Company Limited had taken Archie Lee, Wilson Li Williams Y.C. Wen, the then Belize City Council and the then Registrar of Lands to court to have the property returned to Formosa.

In a nutshell, Houng Wen Li had bought the land in the name of Formosa Investment Company in 1994 for $540,000. It paid property tax on the land up to 2001 however

It may have been a clear cut case, but when attorneys presented the case before Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh, it was deemed that the land was sold without having exhausted other options of collecting the taxes. Secondly, there were arguments presented in particular evidence by attorney Emil Arguelles who proved to the judge that no auction for the sale of land took place. In fact Justice Conteh found that despite claims that the land was sold at a public auction, evidence presented by two witnesses contradicted that. He noted that “both these witnesses gave me the clear impression of prevarication as to whether there was any public auction of the property at all.” The judge stopped short of calling the witnesses liars.

Justice Conteh found that a reserved price in this case $200,000 was to have been set by the Magistrate; however, it turned out that it was the then Mayor David Fonseca who set the price. As for the sale itself and how it was that Archie Lee and Wilson Li paid exactly the reserved price, Conteh pointed out of Archie Lee’s testimony that “I am bound to say that he did not make a favourable impression on me as an honest witness as to the issue of a public auction being held on 10th August by Mr. Prince, for the property.”  He continued saying “the sale strikes me like one by private treaty between supposed highest bidder, the licensed auctioneer and possibly officials in the Belize City Council”.

With that he ruled that the land should be returned to Houng Wen Li.

Of note is that the three acres of land was sold by Archie Lee and Wilson Li to Williams Y.C. Wen despite an injunction. Thereafter, an injunction was sought against Williams to prevent him from doing anything with the property.  It is also noted that at various times the land was valued at between 2.6 and three million dollars. The sale of land at that value to recover $27,500 in taxes was unjustifiable since a portion of the land could have been sold to recover the property taxes owed.