Odyssey's HMS Victory faces judicial review
- On 29/01/2015
- In Treasure Hunting / Recoveries
- 0 comments
From Seeking Alpha
The confirmation of the legal moves came when a spokesperson for the MoD told thePipeLine that it would not be appropriate to comment on certain aspects of the HMS Victory 1744 controversy because "Lawyers representing Her Majesty's Government are awaiting service of proceedings from an individual who is seeking a Judicial Review of the Secretary of State's decision.
A judicial review is effectively asking the courts to investigate the propriety of actions taken by the government - in this case the Ministry of Defense's (MOD) award of the HMS Victory to the MHF/OMEX.
The first step is for someone to seek permission from the judge after serving the other side notice. Then it would be filed with the courts and await a hearing where a judge will decide if there is merit to the review or not.
The process will at a minimum shine serious bright light on the decisions made by the MOD in their award: was their proper due diligence done?
Is OMEX financially capable of completing the work ? Were there any improprieties in the bidding process ? etc.
Ultimately it seems like it will certainly add a great deal of time and expense to the process if the judge approves it and at worst case possibly reverse the grant altogether.
At a minimum, it will have to clarify the still vague language that the OMEX Bulls are hanging onto that OMEX will be able to sell the 'trade goods' and other personal artifacts that some are arguing fall outside the deed of gift, despite that appearing to be in contradiction to the UNESCO Annex and UK Museum Code as we elaborated on previously.
After the Nov 7th letter officially warning OMEX for 4 infractions at the HMS Victory site (which we formally uncovered using the UK Freedom of Information Act), OMEX seems to be having a slow time getting the MMO license required to revisit the Victory site.
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