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Charlestown, Nevis (Thursday September 8th, 2022) In the recent landmark judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal, the issue of the NIA’s legal standing in civil proceedings was not raised by the parties to the case. It was in fact directly raised as an issue by the Court of Appeal.The question was therefore not initiated by the Nevis Island Administration itself, but rather, the Court inquired into the issue the first time that the appeal came up for hearing before the Court of Appeal on 31st January 2019.At paragraph 8 of the judgment, the Honourable Chief Justice made it clear that it was the Court itself raising this question as a preliminary issue. Paragraph 8 states as follows: “The appeal initially came on for hearing before a differently constituted panel of this Court on 31st January 2019. On that occasion, the Court raised as a preliminary issue whether the proper party was served with the claim for the purposes of the entry of default judgment; and further, as the claim is one for breach of contract against the NIA, whether the NIA is a juridical person separate and apart from the Crown or is part and parcel of the Crown for the purposes of proceedings governed by the Crown Proceedings Act. This was not considered by the master in his written judgment or canvassed by the parties in the proceedings below but the Court considered it sufficiently important that this question be addressed for the purpose of promoting legal certainty, as it relates to commencement and service of civil proceedings in respect of the NIA and should not rest on some form of indulgence or practice.”The instant effect of this judgment, however, is that the $79 million default judgment against the Nevis Island Administration was made against the wrong party. It therefore cannot be directly enforced against the NIA and its validity has been thrown into doubt.