
The court, chaired by judges Manuel Alexis Read Ortiz, Manuel Herrera Carbuccia and Anselmo Alejandro Bello, rejected a cassation appeal filed by the promoters of the Bavaro International Airport (AIB), against the decision issued by the Second Chamber of the Superior Administrative Court.
The cassation sought to check on the quality of the contested judgments given by the courts of appeal as regards both the application of law and the legal reasoning behind it.
The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice rejected the appeal against a ruling that had declared the construction of the Bávaro International Airport (AIB) harmful to the collective interest and ordered the stopping of any building activities.
The ruling alleges that at the time judge Moisés Ferrer Landrón did not sign the decision because he had deliberated and made a decision during his vacation period and that judge Rafael Vásquez Goico did not sign it for reasons of inhibition, as recorded in the minutes dated 28 October 2023.
The country’s highest judicial court considered that the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), when issuing the ruling rejecting a contentious appeal against the Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC) decision, did not incur the defects denounced by the appellant and therefore decided to reject this appeal.
The sentence was issued on 22 December 2023. In paragraph 74, the ruling states that despite having been summoned on several occasions, the interested party did not respond to the call to appear before the administration to present its means of defense and provide the documentation that it deemed relevant.
He argues that, in this sense, the fact is confirmed that, as the judges on the merits pointed out, the administration complied with the minimum guarantees of due process and that the appellant cannot take advantage of being absent.
Miguel Valerio, lawyer for the Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este, owner of the Punta Cana International Airport and the Punta Cana Group, declared that the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), the highest jurisdictional body in the Dominican judicial system, rejected the airport promoter’s appeal.
The Punta Cana International Airport’s owners had complained there were irregularities in the procedures for approval during the past Danilo Medina administration. A presidential decree was issued during the government transition period approving the Bavaro International Airport, promoted by Abraham Hazoury and other partners through the Abrisa Group. Hazoury is the founder of the Cap Cana development.
Valerio said that the decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice are unappealable.
Valerio explained: “By article 26 literal r) of Law No. 491-06 of Civil Aviation, the Executive Branch has to approve or not the decision of the Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC) to establish an airport in a certain place. Valerio argued that Decree No. 270-20, dated 21 July 2020, exceeded the competence of the Executive Branch when it named the company that would benefit from the new airport construction and operation and when authorizing the signing of a contract with the Dominican state.
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Listin Diario
Diario Libre
27 December 2023