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Dr. Alvaro Rosado

The former C.E.O. of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital was dismissed immediately after the Barrow Administration took office in 2008. Doctor Alvaro Rosado then filed a lawsuit against the country's national hospital. Rosado claimed it was a case of victimization as his contract was suddenly terminated with the change of government. He tried to settle out of court but the K.H.M.H. wouldn't budge so the case went to trial and a decision was finally handed down today. Rosado was represented at the Supreme Court by Agnes Segura Gillett of Arnold and Company. According to Gillett, this morning Supreme Court Judge Minette Hafiz ordered the hospital to pay Rosado over seventy thousand dollars.

Agnes Segura Gillett, Attorney for Alvaro Rosado

"The case was brought by my client Doctor Rosado as a result of his employment being terminated by the new board of K.H.M.H. I say new because this was the board that was appointed after the February 2008 elections. Immediately after the appointment of the board, Doctor Rosado was sent on compulsory leave and thereafter he was advised that his contract was not going to be honored by the new board. We therefore initiated a claim after trying for an out of court settlement for a declaration by the court that the contract was a valid and subsisting one. Secondly, that he was wrongfully terminated and thirdly, that he be compensated pursuant to the contract. The K.H.M.H. decided to file a counterclaim against Doctor Rosado for liability arising out of a press conference that he had done in relation to the death of a patient and they also claimed that he was terminated for valid reasons, which is that he was insubordinate to the new chairman. Their counterclaim was dismissed rightfully by the court and at the end of the day, the court gave a declaration that Doctor Rosado had a valid and subsisting contract and that he be compensated for the salary that he would have been due under the contract. My client basically faced what a lot of Belizeans face when there is a change of government, which is political victimization. He was locked out of his office immediately after the new board took over. They basically just didn't want him there because he did not, in their opinion, share in their political views. And therefore I believe that the judgment of the court vindicates my client and should make him at least feel good that everything that he went through did not go in vain."

Jose Sanchez

"How much did he get?"

Agnes Segura Gillett

"He only had a one year contract which was that his salary was seventy-two thousand dollars under that contract. And he would have been entitled to benefits and gratuity had that contract been fulfilled. However, the court ordered that he be paid his salary."

The K.H.M.H. was also ordered to pay for the cost of court proceedings, which included paying for Rosado's attorney's fees. The K.H.M.H. has twenty-one days to file an appeal the decision.