CCJ rules two Guyanese land titles obtained by fraud

Feb 07, 2019 News

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday ruled that two land titles obtained by Guyanese Bhagwantlall Mossai and Alvin Alves should be cancelled because they were both obtained by fraud.
The ruling was made in the case of Chandra Ramotar Singh vs Bhagwantlall Mossai and Alvin Alves. The matter concerned land at Lot 14 Mortice, Mahaicony River.
According to court documents, Singh was in occupation of the land in 1989, but did not have official title. He met with complications of obtaining a title when he agreed to buy the land from some of the heirs of the previous owner. Unknown to Singh, Alves, Mossai and his brother, Ramrattan Mossai, had conspired to defraud him.
In 1994, Alves applied to the Land Court for title and fraudulently claimed that he was in possession of the land. The Land Court, being unaware that Singh was the person in possession, granted Alves a declaration of title. He later sold the land to Bhagwantlall Mossai.
When Mr. Singh became aware of these activities, he filed court proceedings against Alves and Mossai in 2003. He claimed damages in trespass and fraud, but did not seek the cancellation of the fraudulent titles. Nevertheless, the trial judge, Justice Bovell-Drakes, having found fraud on the part of Alves, Mossai and his brother, cancelled the fraudulent titles.
The Court of Appeal in Guyana, by a majority, declined to cancel the fraudulent titles, because among other things, Singh had not asked for them to be cancelled in his claim, and because the claim was out of time.
Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, who was Acting Chief Justice at the time, did not agree with the majority.
However, the CCJ in its judgment yesterday found that Mr. Singh had capacity to commence court proceedings for trespass and fraud, that he was not out of time for filing his 2003 action and finally, that Justice Bovell-Drakes was correct in cancelling the fraudulent titles.
The CCJ also decided an important point of procedural law, that is, that the Court of Appeal of Guyana had no power to extend the time for the filing of an application in that Court for permission to appeal to the CCJ.

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