The recent decision by Puisne Judge Geoffrey Bell to overturn Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton's policy decision banning the ability of a Bermudian couple to sell a Tucker's Town home to a non-Bermudian may have broader ramifications than whether owners Alan and Vera Marshall can sell the house for $45 million.

What is not yet clear is whether Mr. Justice Bell's decision applies to all the homes that were affected by last year's ban, or just to the Marshalls. Nonetheless, the judgment challenges the right of Ministers to make broad policy changes because they judge them to be in the public interest. Mr. Justice Bell, on the evidence presented to him, effectively ruled that the Government had failed to prove the policy was in the public interest.

This newspaper disliked the policy from the start, not because it has much sympathy for millionaire home owners, but because it was the wrong approach to ending the practice of "fronting" in which Bermudians were the titular owners of houses actually owned by non-Bermudians, and because it had the effect of instantly devaluing properties owned by Bermudians while increasing the value of homes owned by non-Bermudians.

A better approach then, and one which would have also enabled Government to preserve land for Bermudians (the other policy goal) would have been to gradually increase the annual rental value level at which homes could be bought. While Government will no doubt wish to appeal the judgment, if only to establish the tests that policy decisions must meet, raising the ARV levels remains the best approach and Mr. Horton should revisit the idea.