Ro Filipe Tuisawau, Adi Litia Qionibaravi and Usaia Waqatairewa are seeking a Court of Appeal order that the judgment of Justice Vishwa Sharma be set aside.

Three members of the Social Democratic Liberal Party have appealed the High Court Judgement that the Party’s Annual General Meeting in June 2019 was illegal.

Ro Filipe Tuisawau, Adi Litia Qionibaravi and Usaia Waqatairewa are seeking a Court of Appeal order that the judgment of Justice Vishwa Sharma be set aside.

The Appeal document is also asking the court to declare that the initial High Court judgement be stayed pending the appeal.

Ro Filipe, Adi Litia and Waqatairewa are listed as appellants in the court document.

They are also seeking an Appeals Court order that the AGM last June was convened legally and that the decisions, resolutions and outcomes of said AGM were and are valid.

Ro Filipe and Adi Litia are also seeking a declaration that their appointment as SODELPA President and Vice President respectively were and are valid.

The Appeals Court is also asked to issue an order that all subsequent actions, meetings, resolutions and outcome of the SODELPA Management Board following the AGM were also valid.

The three appellants argue that Justice Sharma erred in law when finding that the Watisoni Nata and others could not rely on SODELPA’s appeal process as contained in the Party Constitution.

They also argue that the High Court Judge erred in law and “invoked the Court’s jurisdiction with unclean hands”, in not finding that Nata and others acted in breach of the SODELPA Constitution by failing to exhaust the mandatory appeal process.

The appeal document goes on to claim that Justice Sharma failed to understand or consider various provisions of the SODELPA Constitution in his judgement.

Ro Filipe, Adi Litia and Waqatairewa are seeking orders that Justice Sharma erred in law and fact by reaching inconsistent verdicts or conclusions through the making and refusing of declaratory orders.

They also want an Appeals Court order that they did not violate the constitutional rights of Nata and others.

The High Court on 23rd April ruled that the SODELPA AGM in 2019 was invalid and therefore the consequent decisions of the Management Board were also invalid.

Based on this, the Registrar of Political Parties removed Ro Filipe as the President of SODELPA on 28th April, while Usaia Waqatairewa was removed as the Party’s registered officer.