Privy Council denies appeal in Copperhole land dispute on Monos Island

THE UK-based Privy Council has refused permission for the estate of the late caretaker of Copperhole, Monos Island, to challenge a Court of Appeal decision that dismissed a claim for possession rights to property occupied by the Roman Catholic Church.

On April 30, Lords Briggs, Hamblen and Burrows declined the application brought by Martha Joseph, legal representative of Lorna and Dean Joseph’s estate, and their relatives. The decision was posted on the Privy Council’s website on May 7.

The Joseph's sought to appeal the unanimous ruling by Justices of Appeal Prakash Moosai, Vasheist Kokaram, and Carla Brown-Antoine, who upheld the 2008 High Court decision by then-Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell. The Court of Appeal found no grounds to overturn her findings.

In the ruling, Justice Kokaram expressed hope for a mutually agreeable solution for the Joseph's occupation on Monos Island, noting the trial judge's suggestion that such an arrangement could extend beyond the Copperhole property.

The dispute centred on a one-acre parcel known as Copperhole. The Roman Catholic Church claimed occupancy of the front section of the property, used as a scout house, since the 1950s, while the Joseph family asserted adverse possession and entitlement to remain on the property because relatives of theirs were living in an annexe before a priest and a the sea scouts moved into the front part of Copperhole.

The conflict began in 2004 when the Joseph's barred the church from using the scout house, prompting legal action by the church in 2007, asserting the right to occupy all of Copperhole.

The church contended that the Joseph's patriarch, Patrick “Khaki” Joseph, was initially placed on the property as a caretaker.

The Joseph's denied this and brought their counterclaim against the Chaguaramas Development Authority for adverse possession, claiming their grandfather had lived on the property before the church.

However, Donaldson-Honeywell ruled that while the church proved a longstanding occupation of the scout house, the Joseph's failed to establish legal possession of any part of Copperhole or comply procedurally in their counterclaim against the CDA.

The trial judge further noted that any claims by the Joseph's concerning the annexe or boathouse could have been raised with the CDA but were moot as the family no longer occupied the structures. According to her ruling, the church’s occupation was by its priests, its Belmont parish sea scouts and the Presentation College sea scouts.