Court sides with dead man in land dispute case

A High Court judge has ruled in favour of the estate of a Couva resident in a land dispute over two parcels of land in Pine Village, Balmain, Couva.
Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams ruled in favour of Vijai Mahadeo, who died before the matter went to trial. One of his sons, Vashisht, was appointed by the court to represent his father’s estate so the case could continue.
In deciding the case, Quinlan-Williams granted Mahadeo ownership of the disputed property and ordered several members of the Roopchand family, relatives, to vacate.
Quinlan-Williams found that Mahadeo held both legal and possessory title to two pieces of land, one measuring approximately eight acres and the other two acres. The defendants in the matter, Pooran Roopchand (now deceased), Jeremiah Roopchand, and other family members, claimed they had occupied the property since the 1950s and held a deed of assent to the land.
However, the court found that Mahadeo had a stronger legal claim and was in actual possession of the land from 2011 onward, when he returned to the property, rebuilt his house, and began agricultural activities, including hydroponics and tree planting.
The judge found no evidence that the defendants had been using the land as claimed. Instead, the court noted several instances between 2015 and 2017 where the defendants entered the land without permission, destroyed trees and plants, removed fences, and demolished gates.
The judge awarded Mahadeo’s estate $5,000 in nominal damages for trespass and $31,500 in special damages for the destroyed gates. A permanent injunction was also granted, barring the defendants from entering the land, interfering with activities on the land, or threatening Mahadeo’s family and agents.
The defendants were also ordered to vacate a dwelling house they constructed unlawfully on Mahadeo’s property. Additionally, a deed of assent registered in 2014 that claimed to transfer the land to the Roopchand family was declared invalid and ordered to be expunged from the records of the Registrar General.
Quinlan-Williams also dismissed the defendants’ counterclaim and ordered that they pay legal costs related to that part of the case.
Attorney Kingsley Walesby represented Mahadeo, while Samuel Saunders represented two defendants, and one represented himself.
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"Court sides with dead man in land dispute case"