By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeaal has condemned the Registrar General’s handling of the Valley Boys Junkanoo registration saga, describing it as “beyond belief” that a group of unauthorised people could hijack the name and legacy of one of the country’s most iconic cultural institutions without proper scrutiny.

The appellate panel granted leave for the long-time leadership of one of the Valley Boys groups - the World Famous headed by Brian Adderley - to challenge a Supreme Court decision dismissing their bid for judicial review. The justices said the lower court had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the issues raised and the public importance of clarifying the Non-Profit Organisations Act, 2019 (NPO Act).

The panel concluded that the appeal raises “excellent prospects of success” and that the proper interpretation of the NPO Act “should, in the interests of justice, be reviewed.”

The court’s language was unusually strong. “It is beyond belief,” the ruling said, “that a group of unauthorised persons could (without further inquiry by the Registrar General) have essentially hijacked the well-established name of an existing non-profit Junkanoo entity, its logo and public identity by obtaining registration under the Act.”

The appellate judges said the record appeared to show that the people who registered “The Valley Boys Junkanoo Group” in September 2023 — the Way Forward group led by Trevor Davis — were neither the original founders nor authorised by the widely recognised leadership.

They pointed to troubling evidence that the constitution of the new group was filed nearly three weeks after its registration and that its first board meeting took place six weeks later — clear signs, they said, of a failure by the Registrar General to perform due diligence as required under section 7(4) of the Act.

“These matters,” the court wrote, “ought to have alerted the learned judge to the real possibility that the Registrar General may not have complied with the statutory requirements before granting registration.”

The immediate implications of the ruling are unclear but could be far-reaching. Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg had used the lower court’s ruling that favoured Mr Davis’ group to justify not giving Mr Adderley’s group seed money for the upcoming holiday parades.

The dispute stems from a deep internal rift that emerged in 2023 within the Valley Boys, founded in 1958 by the late Winston “Gus” Cooper. The group, one of Junkanoo’s most celebrated names, has been led since 2014 by Mr Adderley.

After decades of competition in the A Category of the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades, a faction calling itself “The Way Forward Committee,” including former members Mr Davis and Michael Foster, accused Mr Adderley’s team of mismanagement and alleged non-compliance with the NPO Act. They then applied to register “The Valley Boys Junkanoo Group” as a non-profit organisation in September 2023, effectively formalising a new entity under the same name.

Soon after, the Adderley-led leadership registered a different non-profit — “The World Famous Valley Boys Junkanoo Group” — to preserve their identity.

When the Registrar General later directed Mr Adderley’s faction to change its name, threatening to strike it from the register because it “so nearly resembled” the rival entity’s, the long-time leaders filed for judicial review.

Justice Darron Ellis of the Supreme Court dismissed the application in March 2025, ruling that the Registrar General had acted lawfully and lifting an injunction that had temporarily prevented her from removing Mr Adderley’s group from the register. He also ordered costs against the group.

That decision, the Court of Appeal said, “appears highly questionable.” It faulted Justice Ellis for overlooking the apparent irregularities in the Registrar General’s process and for failing to recognise the arguable public-interest questions raised by the dispute.

“The issues raised,” the appellate court found, “including the proper interpretation of the Non-Profit Organisations Act, should in the public interest be examined and clarified.”

The judges said the appeal would explore whether Parliament intended the failure of an existing unincorporated non-profit to register within the Act’s 90-day window to result in loss of rights, and whether the Registrar General had an implied duty to verify that applicants were legitimately authorised.

They stressed that the original Valley Boys, long recognised by government agencies, the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence, and the public, had been issued a business licence and taxpayer registration in 2015 and held a government lease since 1996 for their Claridge Road shack. These facts, they said, made it untenable that a new, unauthorised body could simply take over its identity.

The court also warned that the Registrar General’s approach risked undermining vested rights and intellectual property protections in group names and logos that have accumulated over decades of public use.

The ruling reopens the Valley Boys leadership dispute and allows Mr Adderley’s team to pursue a full appeal. While the court refused to grant a stay on the lower court’s orders, it described the case as one of exceptional cultural importance, noting that its outcome could affect how all Junkanoo groups and other non-profits are treated under the law.