By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
MORE than 100 residents of Jubilee Gardens have filed a class action lawsuit against the government and Renew Bahamas for causing them to be “sickened to near death” as a result of the “toxic and hazardous” emissions caused by the recurring fires at the New Providence Landfill.
The 111 residents, in a writ dated February 2 and obtained by The Tribune, are suing the government and Renew Bahamas for breaching their respective duties to ensure that adequate measures were taken to manage the landfill and prevent the fires and resulting “toxicity” from adversely impacting them and their “convenience of living”.
The residents are also suing the government in particular for breaching its “duty of care” by failing to “properly assess the danger of placing them so close” to the landfill and for not properly managing the dumpsite “so as to not pose a danger to the health and well-being of the residents of Jubilee.”
The residents are seeking compensation including but not limited to medical costs, repair costs to the homes in Jubilee Gardens and damages for the “breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment” outlined in the conveyances between minister of environment and housing - the second defendant - and the residents.
The residents are also seeking special damages to be specifically pleaded in a schedule for each plaintiff in the action in due course. Those include, but are not limited to, expenses incurred in relation to drapes and cloth cleaning due to the thick smoke associated with the fires; displacement costs and professional fees including that of appraisers and environmentalists.
The writ further states that as some of the “heads of loss” are continuing and are “likely to increase,” the residents reserve the right to provide “further voluntary particulars of loss and damage in due course.”
The residents are also seeking interest on all of the sums awarded both before and after judgement, costs, and any other relief the court deems just.
According to the writ, Melissa Allen-Maynard and the 110 other residents of Jubilee Gardens are the plaintiffs in the action.
Renew Bahamas, a company engaged in 2014 by the Christie administration to manage the landfill, is listed as the first defendant. The minister of environment and housing, the director of the Department of Environmental Health and the minister of public works are listed as the second, third and fourth defendants respectively.
The attorney general is listed as the fifth defendant in the action due to his capacity as representative of the second and third defendants as officers of the Crown under the Crown Proceedings Act.
According to the writ, the residents of Jubilee contracted with the second defendant to purchase homes in an area that was designated by the second defendant to be a “safe residential neighbourhood.” Thus, they relied on that defendant to provide land for their homes in a “non-hazardous, non-toxic, non-dangerous environment,” and that the fourth defendant would “approve construction of homes in likewise.”
However, the writ asserts the residents have since been “unable to enjoy their homes and lives” due to the “thick black smoke and noxious fumes” emanating from the “continuous uncontrolled fires” which take place at the landfill, due to the defendants failing to take any, or any adequate measures to prevent the fires and resulting toxicity.
The writ further asserts that as a result of the recurrent fires, the residents have been “poisoned” due to them being forced to inhale gases from burning materials such as pyrolitic oil; metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury and magnesium; and pyrolitic aromatic hydrocarbons.
The writ asserts that before purchasing the homes, the residents were never made aware by the second defendant of the “insurmountable problems” and the “toxic, dangerous and hazardous emissions” at the landfill, which was established in 1971, prior to the building of the Jubilee Gardens subdivision.
Thus, the residents charge the fourth defendant ought not to have granted permission to the minister of environment and housing to create a subdivision in Jubilee Gardens, and ought not to have given building permits to the residents of that community in all the circumstances.
The residents charged there has thus been “gross dereliction of duty, negligence and breach of their statutory obligations” on the part of both the second and fourth defendants.
“Said defendants owed a duty of care to the residents of Jubilee to ensure that they would be able to enjoy their homes and lives in Jubilee to the normal standards of safety, cleanliness, comfort and convenience of living that are normally enjoyed by home owners in general in other housing developments in the Bahamas and not be subjected to the abuse described in this statement of claim,” the writ said.
“It was foreseeable that their omission to properly operate the landfill and ensure that the disposal of waste at the landfill in according with the methods prescribed in the Environmental Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Waste) Regulation would ultimately lead to unauthorised and uncontrolled fires, which was and is negligent and the scent and smoke which was and remains a nuisance.”
The residents have retained the services of attorney Fred Smith, QC, to represent them in the class action.
Comments
John 6 years, 10 months ago
The fact is the entire island is impacted at some time or other once the dump is set on fire. Cable Beach in the area of Bah Mar seems to be getting severely hit with smoke from this paticular fire, especially at night when the thick smog settles over the area. Many residents are already asleep when this happens and are unaware of what they are breathing all night. So imagine then plight of those residents who are in the fire zone.
Chucky 6 years, 10 months ago
Notice yet another example of what a lousy country and people we are.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
They need to sue Perry and his former Cabinet who almost burned them out of their homes last year ........... Did I see a Maynard associated with the lawsuit?????? ......... JOKES!!!!!!
Sickened 6 years, 10 months ago
I could barely see Arawak Cay this morning driving in. We MUST do better!
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 10 months ago
And not even a peep from Minnis himself on why the government he leads has failed to address a well known dire health hazard that he repeatedly promised would be immediately addressed if the people supported the FNM and he became PM. Many of these same FNM supporters and their family members are now afflicted with life threatening respiratory ailments. Countless numbers of them have actually succumbed (died) while gasping with serious lung infections and permanently damaged lungs caused by repeated inhalations of toxic fumes and poisonous particulates. Does Minnis have a conscience? Is Minnis competent? Is Minnis all puffery and no real action? Is Minnis no different than Christie? Did we get swing by the dimwitted Minnis during the last general election? And to think Minnis as a medical doctor seems quite prepared to live with an atrocity against the Bahamian people on par with the Nazi extermination of Jews during the holocaust using poisonous gas. Pray tell, just what kind of man is Minnis????!!!!
Honestman 6 years, 10 months ago
"And to think Minnis as a medical doctor seems quite prepared to live with an atrocity against the Bahamian people on par with the Nazi extermination of Jews during the holocaust using poisonous gas"
You have no idea what you are talking about. One of the most ridiculous statements I have read in a long time.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 10 months ago
Tell that to the people of Jubilee Gardens, especially the more vulnerable very young and old, who have developed life threatening respiratory ailments and now struggle daily to breath. Throughout his election campaign Minnis assured us that a government led by him would immediately take whatever steps are necessary to make the dump fires a thing of the past. That was 9 months ago and Minnis, and the cabinet minister responsible who Minnis appointed, have done nothing to help the many thousands of Bahamians who suffer from the hazardous effects of the dump fires.
jus2cents 6 years, 10 months ago
YES! Good for them, don't know what took them so long. I feel like joining them as I too am affected, however they have the worst of it. Sue the previous administrations too, they have let the people down, they all promised to take care of the mess and they failed over and over again.
BahamaPundit 6 years, 10 months ago
FNM caught sleeping. Should have fixed dump as top priority from day one. Now Bahamians will have to pay the claim. Unforgiveable in my opinion. The Minnis administration's failure to address the dump from day one of their victory speaks volumes to me. This is not an administration of action, but a do-nothing administration following in the steps of the PLP waiting for foreign direct investment dollars to fall out of the sky into their laps.
TheMadHatter 6 years, 10 months ago
Another lawsuit, another nolle prosequi. LOL
sealice 6 years, 10 months ago
A fire is an act of god - have fun charging someone for neglect when it was the hand of the lord that did it. Also the dump has always caught on fire and always stunk up that part of the island - why do you think the land is / was so cheap... you get what you pay for.
sealice 6 years, 10 months ago
maybe you should try going back and suing the original PLP since they are why we are what we are today?
jackbnimble 6 years, 10 months ago
Town planning should be sued. Who the hell puts a subdivision next to a dump??!!
hrysippus 6 years, 10 months ago
I don't think God set the dump alight.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
The Government's sub-division .......... and the Government dump ....... Go figger!!!!!!!!!
What can we on the Out Islands sue Nassau for????? ....... Gross neglect and undercapitalization for 200+ years ........... Maybe TCI should sue Nassau too!!!!!!
birdiestrachan 6 years, 10 months ago
I am so happy Mr: Christie is out of office. He should know by now. that God was in the plan. let them sue the FNM Government. They are being sued at lot these days. VAT money will be gone soon. The Drama King seems never to get tired of suing the Government.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
You are a blind fool .............. The PLP ran this country for 35 of the last 51 years .......... and all that time the Dump was right there - a ticking timebomb.
Sickened 6 years, 10 months ago
They are not suing the FNM they are suing the government. The FNM won't have to pay this bill, the people of The Bahamas will be paying this.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 10 months ago
Agreed ......... ... the captain at the wheel takes the blame for the mishap ..... Who sued the Government & Renew last year when the Dump burned for weeks???? There is an effort been made NOW to mitigate the Dump mess.
Dawes 6 years, 10 months ago
Hopefully this will lead to something finally happening at the Dump. For those saying this is something the FNM will pay, no this is Government which means the Bahamian people. It will of course be interesting to see what happens when they finally do something about the dump. As a lot of the change will have to come from us, and i can already see people screaming about not being able to sue Styrofoam products or having to split their garbage up. Reckon there will be an increase in illegal dumping when they do what is needed.
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