By ARTESIA DAVIS, Guardian Senior Reporter, artesia@nasguard.com

The appellate court has once again questioned its jurisdiction to review bankruptcy decisions. The court's president, Dame Joan Sawyer, raised the issue during Rudolph King's appeal against a bankruptcy order that was made against him when he failed to pay an $800,000 debt to Cavalier Construction.

The appeal has been adjourned to June 17 and 18 to allow King's lawyer, Wayne Munroe, time to research the issue. The Court of Appeal first queried the right of appeal against bankruptcy declarations in 2004 in the case of former PLP MP Sidney Stubbs and businesswoman Gina Gonzales. The debt was paid after Stubbs was declared bankrupt and Stubbs asked the Court of Appeal to vacate the order. But the appellate court was not satisfied that it had the authority to interfere with the order. Stubbs took his case to the Privy Council, which declared that there was a right of appeal.

However, since the Privy Council is not bound by its own decisions, the local Court of Appeal must still determine if it has jurisdiction to hear King's case.

Said Dame Joan: "The only right of appeal you have, is what the statute provides. The right of appeal, as I understand it, is statutory. If the statute doesn't provide it, you can't get it. The law, as regards to bankruptcy, does not give you right of appeal. If we have no jurisdiction, nothing we do is worth the paper we write it on."

The appeal had to be adjourned last year because three judges were not available to hear the case. At the time, two of the Court's judges, Justices of Appeal Emmanuel Osadebay and Hartman Longley, had to excuse themselves. Justices of Appeal Milton Ganpatsingh and Christopher Blackman, the newest judge appointed to the court, are sitting on the panel.