Beach vendor battle heads to court as judge blocks enforcement action

A group of Caymanian souvenir sellers, deck-chair renters, and food and jet-ski vendors will face off against government in Grand Court for the right to trade at Seven Mile Public Beach.

The vendors won a preliminary victory Tuesday when the court granted them permission to fight for their rights to operate at the tourist hotspot.

The court also issued a ‘stay’ preventing the Public Lands Commission following through on enforcement notices which demanded they cease and desist trading at the beach by 14 Feb. or face heavy fines.

The court application was filed on behalf of a group of nine vendors, including some who had been operating at that site for more than a decade.

The filing indicates that the impacted vendors had been operating with the agreement of government for years and had invested heavily in their businesses on the basis of assurances that they would be granted permits under the new system.

Several had even entered contracts with cruise lines or tour operators and had commitments to fulfil, it states.

“The position taken by the Commission to refuse these applications will cause major losses to all the applicants as this is the primary income they rely on for the financial survival of themselves and their families,” the writ indicates.

Among the applicants are a 62-year-old woman who relies on income from a hair-braiding business to support herself and her elderly mother; a husband-and-wife team who say they invested $35,000 in their water-sports and deck-chair business; and a specialist ice-and-food carvings vendor.

‘Broken promises’

Several of the business owners gave statements that they had been assured they would be given licences on the basis that they were among the original traders at the site. They state that they had completed PRIDE tourism training and food handling or first aid courses, as requested by government, and had operated at the beach ‘incident free’ for several years, with the knowledge and “consent or acquiescence” of government.

The applicants contend that as a result of the assertions and promises made to each of them they had a legitimate expectation that they would be permitted to continue to vend at Seven Mile Public Beach Park.

The lawsuit cites a number of statements made in the media, and allegedly personally to the applicants, by then Public Lands Commission inspector Winsome Prendergast that the commission would be working with the current vendors and was “not going to trouble them”.

One applicant claims they were given “express assertions” that they would be allowed to continue to operate, and invested in new deck chairs and jet-skis on that basis. Another claims they were told they were “pre-approved” while a third contends they were informed “your application will get through”.

Instead the vendors received letters from government informing them their applications had been scored against criteria set out in the new Seven Mile Beach Vendor Policy and were unsuccessful.

Latest twist in long-running saga

The application for leave to apply for judicial review was granted by Justice Jalil Asif KC on Tuesday. The judge also issued a stay against any enforcement action until the conclusion of the case or further order of the court.

The decision is the latest twist in a decades-long battle over the right of traders to carry on business on public lands. 

Government’s efforts to bring structure to the often chaotic scenes at Cayman’s most prized public beach culminated in a policy requiring vendors to submit applications for 34 slots to operate at that location.

The commission received 120 applications for those spots and many of the vendors who had been there from the beginning say they missed out on permits. 

The writ filed on their behalf argues that the policy was unreasonable because details of the criteria were not well defined, the scoring system for applicants was not clear and they were not given proper written reasons for the refusal to grant them permits.

They contend this amounts to a breach of their rights under the Bill of Rights which requires decisions of public officials to be ‘lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair”.

The court filing also argues that issuing enforcement notices with large fines attached is “unreasonable and disproportionate”.

It goes on to argue that the unsuccessful applicants were given no right of appeal – again in contravention of their rights under the Cayman Islands Constitution.

The application was filed by lead counsel Phillip Ebanks, assisted by Kattina Anglin.

Anglin told the Compass she was pleased that the court had granted the vendors the right to have their day in court.

“The applicants include people who rely on their businesses as the sole source of income for themselves and their families. They also include people who have struggled for a variety of reasons to find a role in the Cayman Islands economy and have come to rely on the business and income at the beach as part of their recovery.”