The Tribune

FORMER President of the Court of Appeal Dame Joan Sawyer has lashed out at Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald for his revelation earlier in this Parliamentary term that he kept quiet for more than a year on the contents of a report into an underground fuel leak in his constituency.

Her critique of Mr Fitzgerald was outlined in two letters sent to the MP on February 15 and July 29, 2016, to which she said she has not received a response. In the latest letter, Dame Joan advised Mr Fitzgerald that she would forward the documents to the media for publication.

Dame Joan said she is a constituent of Marathon, having moved into the area in 2011.

“At the beginning of the revelations about the (fuel) escape, you were reported in the press as admitting that you had kept the report of the escape secret for some 18 months, ostensibly because if you had revealed its contents you stood in jeopardy of being removed from the Cabinet,” she wrote.

Dame Joan said she did not think there was basis under the Official Secrets Act or the Cabinet code of secrecy for him to remain quiet.

“If it was because of the Official Secrets Act, then I think that position is untenable as the secret was not of any national/official or governmental business and the ill-advised apology by the Attorney General only added insult to injury.

“It also appeared to me that if it was because of the doctrine of Cabinet secrecy, it failed to meet the basic requirement for that protection to exist since the mere fact that a matter may be spoken of in a Cabinet meeting cannot in and of itself cause Cabinet secrecy to attach itself to what was said and done.”

Dame Joan also said the delay in disclosing the report may have deprived those persons who may have wished to sue over the fuel leak due to a statute of limitations.

“Further, the lapse of time between the actual escape and when that fact became known may have been sufficient to allow the physical evidence to dissipate so that the withholding of the information about the report would amount to obstruction of the court of justice ... not to mention the inhumane treatment of people that that failure to act evidences.”

Dame Joan also hit out at Mr Fitzgerald for saying in 2016 that he felt the government handled the ordeal properly.

“Did you really think that all the inhabitants of the Marathon constituency are illiterate or without common sense? How could you, as a lawyer, make such a statement in light of the common law of torts which applies in this country?

“Have you forgotten the duty of the Attorney General to act on behalf of the public where a public nuisance - which the oil leaks appear at first blush to have created - affects a significant number of persons in the particular area?”

In a letter dated February 15, Dame Joan said she noticed some young women in the Marathon area wearing t-shirts with the message that “Fitzgerald cares” and she wondered if they were serious, given his actions during the Rubis oil leak saga.

The fuel release of 12,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline was observed in late December, 2012, by former operator Fiorente Management, and reported to Rubis on January 19, 2013, according to the BEST Commission.

Black and Veatch was later contracted by the government in 2013 to investigate the matter. The firm’s report found that residents were exposed to potentially harmful chemicals, including cancer-causing benzene.

The report was completed on February 20, 2014, and only released in April, 2015, causing some observers to accuse the government of suppressing the document for more than a year.