Executive Council appeals ruling on director's licence

August 23, 2010 7:21 AM

PHILIPSBURG--The Executive Council has appealed a May 17 court decision in which the Island Council had been given three months to come up with a new decision on a director's licence application on behalf of The Crew's Nest bar and restaurant.

The owners of The Crew's Nest had filed an administrative LAR appeal against the Executive Council's decision to reject the request to obtain a director's licence for one of its employers, a citizen of the United States.

They had based the appeal on the contention that, like Dutch nationals, the Federal Ordinance Foreign Workers LAV also was not applicable to citizens of the United States.

In an intermediate ruling in this case on February 22, a judge had already established that under the Friendship Treaty closed between the Dutch Kingdom and the United States on December 5, 1957, US citizens should be treated the same as European Dutch in the Netherlands Antilles.

The judge had therefore decided to reopen the investigation into the legal framework concerning the issuance of directors' licences and the rules for directors' licences for European Dutch.

According to the Executive Council, the request for a director's licence was a veiled attempt to gain access to the local labour market and to circumvent the LAV and the Federal Ordinance Admission and Expulsion LTU.

The plaintiffs said no difference should be made between European Dutch and citizens of the United States. The judge confirmed in his May 17 ruling that the same rules apply to US citizens in the Netherlands Antilles and European Dutch. This means that where European Dutch are exempt from the LAV, the same should apply to US citizens here.

However, the judge said his ruling would not mean that the plaintiffs should automatically be granted a director's licence. Like European Dutch, US citizens are foreigners and therefore subject to the LTU, the judge said. The conditions laid down in the LTU for European Dutch should also be met by US citizens.

Crew's Nest's legal representative in the case, attorney at law Michael Voges, said he was "surprised" by the Executive Council's decision to appeal the Court's decision. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard.

(Source: The Daily Herlad)

21 August, 2010