Tweak land laws to deter squatters - Judge
Published:Tuesday | February 1, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A Supreme Court judge has made a special call for an amendment to the Registration of Titles Act to prevent squatters from taking possession of registered lands through the owners' inadvertence.
Justice Ingrid Mangatal made the call when she granted an order for more than 30 squatters to vacate prime beach lands they occupy on two properties near Negril, Westmoreland.
The judge said the law should also be amended so that if squatters were successful in dispossessing registered owners of their lands, the latter should be compensated.
Mangatal commented on the state of the act last week Friday when she handed down judgment in the Supreme Court in the case brought by the squatters who were seeking adverse possession of sections of lands they occupied at Hope Bay, also known as Little Bay and Brighton, in Westmoreland. The squatters claimed that in accordance with the law, they had been living undisturbed on the land for more than 12 years and so they should get adverse possession.
The properties totalled 867 acres and belonged to American citizen John Eugster and his wife, Kathleen. They had purchased the properties from George Barber in May 2002 for US$1 million.
Reprisal killing
After the sale of the properties, the squatters, headed by Violet McFarlane, took John Eugster to the Supreme Court seeking adverse possession of the sections of land they occupied. McFarlane was killed shortly after the suit was filed in 2003.
Eugster, 49, was fatally shot in January 2004, and it was reported that his death was a reprisal killing resulting from the land dispute. Kathleen Eugster was substituted as a defendant.
When the suit began, attorney-at-law Kent Gammon, who represented the Eugsters, applied to have the claims struck out on the grounds that the squatters could not bring the claims against the new owners.
Not valid
Mangatal had to consider whether the squatters had a right to claim interest in the lands and also determine when the 12-year period would begin to run after the Eugsters became registered owners.
The judge found that the squatters' claims were not valid because the 12-year period started after May 14, 2002, when the properties were registered to the Eugsters. The judge found that the squatters did not apply before the land was sold to be registered owners. The judge granted orders for the squatters to vacate the properties before February 28.
In making the call for the act to be amended, the judge said it was high time Jamaica's legislators re-examined the law of adverse possession, certainly in relation to registered land, to effect legislative changes similar to those which have occurred in England.
Mangatal said the matter had been plagued by violence and allegations of deaths linked to the land dispute on both sides. She said such a grave and unfortunate situation was far too prevalent in the country. The judge said she hoped there would be no more such occurrences and the dispute would be concluded in a law-abiding and civilised manner.
Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas (now disbarred) had represented most of the squatters, but they were subsequently represented by attorney-at-law Terrence Ballantyne.