Family feud over award-winning bakery in Carnbee

A family land dispute now threatens the future of an award-winning bakery in Carnbee, Tobago.

On Monday, a High Court judge visited the property which houses the Cowie Bakery and a residential property owned by the family.

The dispute is between Dr Lancelot Cowie and Angela Cowie-Adams who insist they are the owner of the property while their cousin, Ian Darlington, says he is entitled to possession of the bakery as he has operated it for 16 years.

Justice Frank Seepersad is expected to rule on the case on Tuesday.

It is alleged the property at New Providence Estate, Carnbee, was sold to the two siblings by their mother, Hillary Cowie. Hillary and her sister Susanna operated the bakery when their mother Caroline died in 1971.

Caroline and her husband George, Dr Cowie and his sister’s grandparents and Darlington’s great grandparents, divided their other properties in Riseland and Sherwood Park to their children. Their three sons received the lands at Riseland while their three daughters, Susanna, Hillary and Bernice. Susanna was Darlington’s grandmother.

It was admitted when Hillary withdrew from the bakery- where she operated the register- Darlington was allowed to continue operating the bakery. The siblings claim the residential portion of the property remained unoccupied for years and in 1998, their mother took out a mortgage to renovate the house.

To recoup what she had spent for the loan, the siblings alleged she sold the property to them without objection and in 2001, they became the lawful owners while allowing their cousin to continue with the bakery operations.

However, they further alleged that the once thriving operation dwindled and it no longer supplied baked goods to large hotels, supermarkets and parlours, something Darlington has died in his defence.

Cowie-Adams also claimed in 2020, Darlington came to her for a copy of the deed so he could get a mortgage so that he could build an annex to the bakery to use as living quarters as he was allegedly having marital and money issues. This, too, was denied by him.

The claim against him alleged she refused to give him permission and also rubbished his adverse possession claim and his request for 7,000 square feet of land transferred to him and his family.

In his counter-claim, Darlington maintains there appeared to be an irregularity with the deed and all Caroline’s children were equally entitled to that property, including his grandmother. He said he always treated the bakery as his after he took over running its operations.

He said the work done on the residential home over the years had nothing to do with the bakery which he and his mother upgraded.

Darlington also said he has paid all utilities, up kept the land surrounding the bakery, was never given he opportunity to purchase it or the residential home.

He also said when his grandparents were in charge of the bakery, it supplied baked goods to several top hotels which stopped when the hotels began doing its own in-house baking.

However, Darlington maintains he has received multiple awards for service to the community so it was untrue that business dwindled and that he wanted to modernise the interior of the bakery to attract and accommodate customers in a dining setting.

In 2021, Darlington won the Tobago Medal of Honour Silver for entrepreneurship at the Tobago House of Assembly’s Tobago Day Awards.