CCJ resolves land dispute between two E’bo brothers

May 11, 2018 News

Trinidad -The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday resolved a family dispute involving lands in Essequibo, Guyana.
In 2002, Mr. Kowsal Narine filed a claim against his brother, Mr. Deonarine Natram, claiming that their father, Mr. Nateram, had been in possession of the lands since 1959 and had therefore acquired prescriptive title to the lands.
Mr. Kowsal Narine also claimed that he had acquired prescriptive title to the lands.
The CCJ allowed the appeal and declared that Mr. Kowsal Narine had been in sole and undisturbed possession of the land since 1 June 1991 and that any title, right or interest of Mr. Deonarine Natram had been extinguished.
In 1959, Mr. Nateram entered into an agreement to purchase the lands from Mr. Ashbourne Chan and Mr. Foster Chan, who were also named as defendants.
Payments were made to the Chans but Mr. Nateram never paid the full purchase price although the Chans permitted him to take possession of the lands. The last payment was made to the Chans by Mr. Nateram in August 1965.
In 1989, Mr Nateram signed an agreement by which he gifted the land to Mr. Deonarine
Natram. Mr. Deonarine Natram then approached the Chans and they agreed to sell the land to
him for $9,950 on the same day, but transport was not passed to him by the Chans until the year
2002.
Mr. Deonarine Natram instituted a claim against Mr. Kowsal Narine and another brother, Mr. Narine Nateram, in which he sought damages and an injunction restraining them from using the land. He also asked for an order that they yield possession of the land to him. This claim was discontinued in March 1990.
In May 1990, Mr Nateram made a will giving the lands to Mr. Kowsal Narine. Mr Nateram died on 31 May 1991.
The dispute between the brothers intensified in 2002 when Mr. Deonarine Natram came on the lands and burned some seed paddy. Mr. Kowsal Narine took the matter to the High Court in Guyana.
At the trial before Justice Roxanne George, Mr. Kowsal Narine, gave evidence that he had assisted his father with the cultivation of the lands from 1973 until 1981, when his father gave him exclusive possession of the lands. He also testified that he paid $75.00 per acre as rent to his father until the latter’s death.
His evidence was that he remained in exclusive possession of the lands after his father’s death. The trial judge found that the father had acquired prescriptive title to the lands in 1978 on the basis that he had become a tenant at will one year after the last payment was made in 1965, that is, in 1966.
She also found that Mr. Kowsal Narine had acquired prescriptive title in his own right.
Mr. Deonarine Natram appealed the decision of the trial judge. The Court of Appeal found that the father was not a tenant at will but rather a licensee. The court also disagreed with the trial judge’s finding that Mr. Kowsal Narine had acquired prescriptive title in his own right. The appeal was allowed and costs awarded to Mr. Deonarine Natram in the sum of $100,000.
Mr. Kowsal Narine appealed to the CCJ. The CCJ agreed with Guyana’s Court of Appeal that the father was not a tenant at will, but a licensee, having entered into possession of the lands in 1959 with the consent of the Chans.
That licence was not terminated by the Chans and Nateram never paid the full purchase price. The CCJ analyzed the status of a purchaser who had not paid the full purchase price but who was put into possession of land by the vendor/landowner in Guyana.
The CCJ accepted that on the father’s death the licence granted by the Chans to Mr.Nateram automatically terminated and the nature of the possession changed.
Mr. Kowsal Narine thereafter remained in possession of the lands from 1 June 1991 in his own right.

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