(Kaieteur News) – Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh on Thursday dismissed the state’s application to strike out a multi-million dollar constitutional lawsuit brought by the parents of 11 children who died in the tragic Mahdia dormitory fire.

The ruling clears the path for the high court to determine whether the legal challenge against the controversial 2023 financial agreements between the government and the grieving families has legal validity. The case is being sent to trial. The dates are yet to be announced. Justice Singh said “Having reviewed the applications and the FDA and the strike out applications and the response thereto, I determined that the big issues were whether the persons who are now who entered into those agreements had capacity to settle estate claims, because these actions are now brought by estates…Having said all of that, I refuse the applications in both parties to strike out. I’m going to convert both matters now to claims, and it’s unfortunate that the rules insist that these matters be commenced by the FDA truthfully, because I have found more than 80% of them have to be converted to claims, because they involved substantial issues many times of facts.”

The guardians, hailing from the Indigenous communities of Micobie and Chenapou, are seeking ordinary damages exceeding $200 million for each deceased child, alongside aggravated and exemplary damages totaling more than $400 million per child. The lawsuit aims to provide compensation for deep emotional distress and to deter future acts of state negligence.