Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A group of over 50 prospective landowners have secured a partial victory in their legal dispute over a failed development in south Trinidad.
Delivering a judgment yesterday, High Court Judge Karen Reid upheld the class-action lawsuit against real estate agent Glenn Thomas and his company, Mass Contracting Company Ltd.
However, Justice Reid dismissed the case against the estate of Joseph Dhanoosingh, who owned the land at Jackson Trace, Buenos Ayres, Erin, on which the residential development is located.
In the lawsuit filed in 2019, the group claimed that they first learned of the development after they responded to a newspaper advertisement published in April 2016.
They claimed they were shown development plans and what they believed to be Town and Country planning permission by Thomas.
Some in the group made down payments, while others allegedly paid the full purchase price advertised.
They decided to file the claim after there were delays in distributing the plots of land and issues in registering the deeds of conveyance provided upon full payment, as they were forged photocopies.
Two of the affected purchasers, Fitzroy Williams and Neil Bishop, were appointed to represent the group, with their test case being binding on all members.
Justice Reid ruled that their case against now-deceased Dhanoosingh could not be upheld as he was not a party to the purchaser’s agreements with members of the group, which listed Thomas and his company as the vendors.
She noted that Dhanoosingh had an agency agreement with Thomas and his company, which only allowed them to market the development but not conduct sales.
“I do not find the claimants have proven their case on a balance of probabilities,” Justice Reid said.
“There is absolutely no evidence proving or corroborating any involvement by the third defendant (Dhanoosingh) in the claimants’ transactions,” she added.
Based on her findings, Justice Reid rejected the group’s claim that Dhanoosingh’s estate should be made to complete the land transactions.
“It is clear that specific performance of the agreements for sale cannot be ordered as the first and second defendants are not the owners of the land,” she said.
Dealing with Thomas and his company, who did not defend the lawsuit, Justice Reid found that they were not authorised to engage in the conduct that they did.
“Not only do I find that the first and/or second defendant had no actual authority to enter into the agreements with the claimants, I find that there is no evidence upon which I can properly come to a finding that the first and/or second defendant had any ostensible authority to do so,” she said.
She ordered Thomas and the company to repay the deposits and payments made by the members of the group, which totalled $4,854,500.
The members of the group and Thomas and his company were ordered to split the legal costs incurred by the administrator of Dhanoosingh’s estate for defending the lawsuit.
The group was represented by Gilbert Peterson and Amerelle Francis. Dhanoosingh’s estate was represented by Chanka Persadsingh and Kiran Lutchmedial.
