Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A woman has won a lawsuit against her step-brother over their father’s decision to leave his property to her after his death.
Delivering a judgment last week, High Court Judge Jacqueline Wilson dismissed Garland Holder’s case against Mary Marshall, seeking to invalidate the deed of conveyance transferring the property to her and accusing her of misappropriating their father’s pension payments totalling $210,000.
The duo’s father, Cyril, acquired the property located at El Dorado Road in Tunapuna in 1969.
He lived at the home with Holder’s mother Shirley, Holder and three siblings.
Cyril and Shirley divorced in March 1993.
Cyril’s relationship with Holder and his siblings was deeply fractured, with Holder admitting that he had not seen his father for 27 years before he took his wife to meet him in 2017.
Holder claimed that he became concerned over his father’s welfare after he visited his home in 2022 and found him in an emaciated state and the house in a state of disrepair.
He applied under the Mental Health Act for his father to be sent to the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital for an evaluation, and he was diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.
After being discharged, Cyril was placed in a nursing home.
Holder made a report to the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services after learning that Marshall had been collecting their father’s pension.
Cyril was 86-years-old when he died last year.
Marshall was one of three children Cyril had outside of his marriage to Holder’s mother.
She claimed that she also had a fractured relationship, but they reconciled after she retired in 2017.
She claimed that in June 2020, she was appointed nominee in respect to his pension and deposited monthly cheques into a joint account they set up.
She claimed she used the pension funds she collected to pay her father’s expenses and spent over $100,000 of her own money to renovate the property.
In determining the case, Justice Wilson considered medical reports on Cyril as she found that Holder failed to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that he (Cyril) did not have the mental capacity to bequeath the property to Marshall when he signed the deed in April 2021.
She also rejected his claims over the pension funds.
“I am satisfied that there is no evidential basis upon which to require an account or the repayment of funds by the defendant,” Justice Wilson said.
“The evidence does not establish that she collected or encashed her father’s pension cheques for her own use or failed to apply pension monies for his benefit,” she added.
As part of her judgment, Justice Wilson ordered Holder to pay Marshall’s legal costs for defending the litigation.
Holder was represented by Colvin Blaize, Marvelyn Henry and Lauren Heath.
Marshall was represented by Wade Ceballo, Allison Woods and Alisha Ponambalam.
