The four principle grounds for supporting the contention by Quark Fishing Limited that the decision by the Director of Fisheries for the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Government not to grant a fishing licence for the South Georgia Fishery to the Company for the 2012 season had been unlawful has been rejected in a judgment by Lord Chief Justice Christopher Gardner QC delivered this morning.
A judicial review application had been made by Quark Fishing with a hearing taking place last November. Quark Fishing had applied for a licence to fish 350 Tonnes of Tooth-fish using its vessel the Jacqueline. The Licence was not granted by the Director of Fisheries.
The first ground submitted by Quark Fishing was that the Director had unlawfully failed to consult on key changes to the decision making procedures for the 2012 season.
The Second was that the Director miss-applied advice given to him by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and had failed to take into account a material consideration when considering Quarks application.
The third ground was that the Company had a legitimate expectation that the Director would not alter the weight given to track record and experience and that the scoring of the Jacqueline under this criterion was unreasonable.
The last ground submitted was that it was unreasonable for the Director to award only one point in the application scoring process to Quarks vessel under the raising standards criterion.
Lord Chief Justice Gardner rejected all four grounds.
The Chief Justice said that he was satisfied that the judicial review was necessary to enable a fair hearing of the issues to take place. He also stated that he was satisfied that neither party had been deliberately unreasonable.
On the matter of costs, the Chief Justice said that while both previous hearings in the UK costs were borne by both defence and complaints, the hearing in Stanley would be paid for solely by Quark.
