Court dismisses appeal

THE Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by more than 500 customary landowners of Mt Victor mine in Kainantu, Eastern Highlands province, against Niugini Mining Limited (NML), after finding that the appeal did not comply with relevant provisions of the Supreme Court rules.
The landowners had initially sued NML in the National Court for environmental damages and pollution caused to their land as a result of the mining operations.
But the court ruled in favour of NML and dismissed the proceedings.
The landowners then filed an application in the Supreme Court to judicially review the decision of the trial judge on the basis that the judge erred in the decision making process by not applying proper principles of the law.
But before they could pursue the appeal, NML objected to the competency of the appeal on the basis that the notice of appeal failed to comply with  the relevant sections of the Supreme Court rules.
NML also argued that grounds 3.1 to 3.3 on the notice of appeal failed to specify sufficient grounds to rely on, including the facts and the law.
In response, the appellants argued that the notice of appeal included detailed facts of law.
They argued that the trial judge erred in law and that the appeal had specified all the basis of the matter.
The court was satisfied that the notice of appeal was incompetent and did not specify the errors of law to enable the respondent to be in a better position to properly oppose the appeal. Therefore, the court dismissed the application.