Elderly sisters lose decade-old Diego land case again

TWO elderly sisters who unsuccessfully tried to evict a man from a piece of land they inherited from a distant relative have again lost their battle for the property, this time at the Privy Council.

In a decision last week, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council refused Constance and Rufina Webb permission to appeal the decision of the local Court of Appeal, which rejected their case against Kevin Henry.

Henry's lawyer Farai Hove Masaisai argued the women should not be given the opportunity to be heard at the final appellate court, since their appeal did not raise a legal issue of general public importance and they were not challenging any finding of fact.

"This is a private dispute between the applicants and the respondent on the issue of possession of land, and adverse possession of land is a well-developed and clearly understood area of law in the Republic of TT," Masaisai said.

The Privy Council agreed and ordered the siblings to pay Henry's legal costs for defending the appeal.

The legal dispute involved a parcel of land at Vanderpool Lane, Diego Martin, which was owned by the sisters' distant relative Annisette Mitchell.

In 1954, Mitchell began renting the land to Mabel Honore and her husband, who built a small home there.

Mitchell died in 1964, followed by her daughter and sole heir Julia, who died in 1967.

Honore, her husband and their adopted son Henry continued to live on the property after the Mitchells' deaths.

After Honore died in 1981, Henry moved in with a neighbour. He said he returned to the property in 1985 and lived there until the sisters tried to evict him.

In 2006, Webb and Watson, who were not Mitchell’s heirs, applied for a waiver of state rights, and a warrant of authority was issued to transfer the property to them.

In the decision of the Court of Appeal, Justice of Appeal Charmaine Pemberton held that at the time of the grant of letters of administration, the 16 years to bring an action for possession, in accordance with provisions of the Real Property Limitation Act, had expired.

She said there was no right or title left to distribute to any person who could have benefited, adding that by this time, there was no legal title that could have been passed on to Webb and Watson under the warrant of authority and the deed of transfer.

The sisters were represented by Stanley Marcus, SC. Jennifer Farah-Tull appeared with Masaisai for Henry.