The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has emerged victorious in a legal battle against Junior Sammy Contractors Ltd, its executive director Shaun Sammy and a farmer over ownership of almost five acres of land in Couva.
Delivering an oral ruling at the end of a brief appeal last Wednesday, five Law Lords of the United Kingdom-based Privy Council dismissed an appeal filed by the company, Sammy and farmer Robert Gormandy.
The legal battle between the parties was related to 4.6 acres of land which Gormandy claimed he obtained through adverse possession by being in continuous possession of it since 1984.
In 2014, Gormandy struck a deal with Sammy to sell the land for $500,000.
He claimed that he was initially offered $600,000 but the offer was decreased and he requested that he retain two lots of land as part of the revised deal.
HDC, which claimed to have obtained title for the land in 2006, filed an application for the company, Sammy and Gormandy to be evicted from the land, while they sought their own order restraining HDC from going into the land.
In determining the case in December 2018, High Court Judge Ricky Rahim upheld the HDC’s claim and voided the sale agreement between Gormandy and Sammy.
Justice Rahim ruled that Gormandy exaggerated his claims over farming on the land for almost three decades and had no right, title, or interest to it which would have allowed him to sell it to Sammy.
“Further, and in any event, the court finds that the agreement for sale was highly suspicious and has caused much unease. Not only did Gormandy and Sammy give differing versions of the negotiations leading up to the agreement for the price of the land, but the price which was accepted by Gormandy was also incredibly low,” Justice Rahim said.
Justice Rahim’s judgement in the case was eventually upheld by the Court of Appeal, leading to the appeal before this country’s final appellate court.
Presenting submissions in the appeal last week, British Queen’s Counsel Oliver Radley-Gardner, who represented Gormandy, Sammy and the company, was asked to respond to a legal precedent over the inability of the Privy Council to consider cases where both local courts make concurrent findings of fact.
Radley-Gardner said the precedent did not apply because both local courts made decisions they were not entitled to make, as Gormandy was not questioned about the alleged exaggeration of his farming activity on the land.
Although Lords Hodge, Briggs, Burrows, Stephens and Sir Guy Newey heard extensive submissions on the issue, the input of Senior Counsel Deborah Peake, who represented the HDC, was not required, as they ruled that the precedent applied after hearing Radley-Gardner.
Gormandy, Sammy, and the company were also represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, Ronnie Bissessar, Alvin Ramroop and Vijaya Maharaj.
Ravi Heffes-Doon and Andre Rudder appeared alongside Peake for the HDC.