The Government is to appeal against a Supreme Court judge?s ruling which branded its decision to ban Bermudians from selling homes to foreigners ?unlawful?.

Randy Horton, Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety, told yesterdaythatthe Government had until Thursday to appeal in the GoldenEye case and would definitely do so.

He said: ?We are going to be filing an appeal. The Attorney General is reviewing the grounds. I have nothing more to say other than that the Attorney General is dealing with the legal aspect of this.?

Mr. Horton brought in a controversial policy change last year which prevented Islanders from selling homes to non-Bermudians.

Previously, foreigners could buy homes from Bermudians so long as they had an annual rental value (ARV) of more than $126,000.

Property developers Alan and Vera Rosa Marshall took the Government to court over the change as it prevented them from selling their $45 million Tucker?s Town mansion GoldenEye, on which they had invested $37 million.

They claimed no Bermudian would be able to afford the asking price for the plush home, which is on so-called Billionaires? Row and has the highest ARV on the Island at $1,182,000.

Puisne Judge Geoffrey Bell ruled on March 3 that the Marshalls had a legitimate expectation to be able to sell GoldenEye and that the Government policy change was ?unlawful and ?an abuse of power?.

Mr. Marshall said yesterday he was not aware of the Government?s plan to appeal. ?I don?t know what?s happening with that right now,? he said.

He would not comment on whether he and his wife would respond to the appeal or on whether GoldenEye had been sold yet. The property, which Oprah Winfrey was once rumoured to have been interested in buying, was put on the global market soon after the outcome of the case.

The Marshalls? QC in the case, Saul Froomkin, a former Attorney General, said he too was unaware of the Government?s decision to appeal. ?I didn?t know they were planning that,? he said. ?I have not seen any Notice of Appeal so I have no idea what Government is doing.?

He added: ?If they are going to appeal, they are going to appeal. I don?t get surprised about anything.?

Attorney General Larry Mussenden could not be contacted for comment yesterday. Nor could Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne, who acted for the Government in the case.

Mr. Horton has defended his policy change in the past as a way of protecting the land stock for Bermudians and preventing ?fronting? i.e. people using trusts to acquire homes for non-Bermudians.

Mr. Bourne did not give the original court hearing the reasons for the Government?s amended policy but said the Minister should be deemed to have acted in the public interest because that was his duty.

Mr. Justice Bell said he did not infer that Mr. Horton acted in the public interest and found it highly doubtful that the policy change would cause any significant drop in the number of properties owned by non-Bermudians.

The judge said a more effective way of achieving that aim would have been to increase the minimum applicable ARV on homes available for sale to foreigners.

The case is unlikely to be heard in the Court of Appeals until later this year.