Juliet Holness' $800m apt complex court battle to continue in January 2024

The trial involving an $800 million apartment complex owned by developer Juliet Holness' company will continue in the Supreme Court in January 2024.

The date was fixed Wednesday after health complications of defendant Charlene Ashley forced an early adjournment of the day's proceedings. The January 10-12 dates were set based on the judge's schedule. 

Ashley will continue to be cross-examined by Rose Bennett-Cooper, the lead attorney for JAJ Development and Holdings Ltd, Holness' company. 

JAJ is suing Ashley, a marketing consultant, to get the splintered title for the land on which the company's incomplete apartment complex is located in Leas Flat, St Andrew. 

JAJ bought a piece of the property on which Ashley lives in 2012 for $22 million. Ashley's portion is Lot One while JAJ's portion is Lot Two.

A condition of the sales agreement was for Ashley to deliver a splintered title, which was requested weeks after the transaction in October 2012. Ashley is to get an apartment as part payment.

Ashley claims she could not produce the title because of problems with the subdivision and the company's alleged failure to turn over drawings of the development. She has also sued JAJ, accusing it of trespassing on her lot and breaching the agreement by destroying concrete structures to build an access road to the apartment complex.

During the near one-hour session Wednesday, Bennett-Cooper asserted that Ashley has prevented JAJ from finishing the development owing to her allegations of trespassing and "interference" in the use of an access road. 

"You have materially breached the agreement of sale by failing to provide the title for Lot Two when it was demanded pursuant to special condition five ...you agree with me, don't you?" Bennett-Cooper asked, referencing the section of the agreement that deals with the provision of the title free of any impediments except in relation to restrictive covenants and easements. 

"No, there's no breach on my side; but four clauses breached by Holness...," Ashley said before she was cut off by the lawyer.

Bennett-Cooper also suggested that a title Ashley provided in December 2022 "does not" conform with the conditions of a 2011 subdivision approval by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.

Ashley said the subdivision approval, which required her to abandon the existing gateway to her lot and open one on the access road, was not part of the sales agreement. 

Bennett-Cooper then questioned Ashley on whether JAJ is entitled to rely on her complying with laws relevant to the enforcement of the terms of a sales agreement.

Ashley insisted that Holness is to "comply and rely on the sales agreement". 

"I'm understanding you to be saying that, she, however, cannot rely on your compliance with the laws of Jamaica," Bennett-Cooper countered, to which Ashley said "definitely not; I'm not sure what laws you're referring to."

Bennett-Cooper clarified that she was referring to any law that to which the sales agreement is connected. 

Ashley replied that "any compliance on my part will always be done" but Bennett-Cooper pounced again, asking whether Holness could rely on that compliance. 

"No, I don't think she needs to rely on what I'm doing, rely on the sales agreement... ," Ashley said, before Bennett-Cooper cut her off, saying "thank you". 

The hearing ended as Bennett-Cooper probed documents that Ashley submitted in her application for the 2022 title for Lot Two.

JAJ rejected that title, arguing that the width of an access road that runs between the two lots is three metres, which is five metres short of what was allegedly agreed and in violation of the 2011 subdivision approval. 

The issue with the access road is a central plank of the case as the sales agreement stipulates that no concrete structures should be impacted in the creation of the road. 

Although the drawing on the sales agreement included a reserve road for the development, Ashley claimed in court that Holness intended to use land acquired from a neighbour to create the access road for the apartment complex.

But Holness hit back, saying she sought to use the access road that came with her lot after building out on the other piece of land she bought. 

Ashley has told the court that it was only after getting the drawings in 2020 that she discovered her property was included in JAJ's apartment plans. Holness admitted that the inclusion was an "error" corrected in 2021. But she said parish authorities insist that the main site plan has to show both lots until there are separate titles. 

The trial was initially set for five days in May.  

It has been marked with Ashley accusing Holness, a member of parliament, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and wife of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, of being a bully who used her influence to bend government agencies to her will. 

Holness has denied those assertions and instead painted Ashley as a serial violator of agreements whose actions have resulted in her facing a possible “failed” $800-million housing project. The project is financed by undisclosed investors. 

Justice David Batts is presiding over the trial. 

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