A civil lawsuit between a cable company and two Government Ministers will begin in the Supreme Court in September.

Corey Butterfield, director of Hardell Cable Ltd., is engaged in two legal battles with Government, one over the revoking of an initially allocated wireless cable frequency and one over the supply of multimedia services at the Airport and $200,000 worth of missing equipment.

His company is suing Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb and Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown.

There is a third lawsuit against the Telecommunications Minister's decision to issue WOW, World on Wireless with their two licenses.

A cable broadcast licence was issued to World on Wireless (WOW) by the Telecommunications Ministry in January.

Yesterday at a hearing, Justice Geoffrey Bell set the trial date for September 15 with each separate lawsuit to run consecutively.

Lawyers Delroy Duncan and Richard Horseman will represent Mr. Butterfield and Principal Crown Counsel Philip Perinchief appears on behalf of the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Transport.

Hardell, represented by legal firm Wakefield Quin, is asserting that Dr. Brown tried to remove the company from their legal position at the Airport, putting Bermuda Airport Advertising there in their place.

Airport Advertising is run by Walton Brown, who is related to Dr. Brown.

Mr. Butterfield is claiming his company had been given a licence as long ago as 1996 following a public hearing but had to wait until 2003 before Government put in place technological regulations that would allow the service to operate.

Mr. Butterfield said draft agreements were in place for 40 channels while he said dishes were imported to the Island in 1997.

Crown told to pay indemnity costs

A judge criticised the Crown and ordered it to pay two year old indemnity costs to a lawyer.

Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons ordered that the Director of Public Prosecutions, who was the named defendant in the civil matter, pay Christine Hoskins $8,285 in indemnity costs before July 16.

The indemnity order was originally awarded in favour of Ms Hoskins by Mrs. Justice Simmons in November 2002 in relation to an action taken by the Crown against Ms Hoskins' law firm, her lawyer Paul Harshaw said.

However, more than a year passed without payment, spurring Ms Hoskins to take an action against the DPP in May 2003.

Seemingly startled by the length taken to settle the matter, Mrs. Justice Simmons said that she was “trying to see why the DPP didn't come up to the wicket”, and take the steps which would prove the Crown had not been sitting on the matter until recently.

In light of the length of time since Ms Hoskins' action was commenced, Mrs. Justice Simmons ordered the DPP, who was represented by Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne, to cover the costs of the action since its May 28, 2003 start date.

But Mrs. Justice Simmons did exempt the Crown from liability for the costs of yesterday's proceedings, saying that it could have easily been avoided had the counsels resolved the matter out of court prior to yesterday.