Shirley Joseph Plaintiff v Everad Burgin Defendant [ECSC]
| Jurisdiction | St Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Judge | Mitchell, J |
| Judgment Date | 26 June 2000 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2000] ECSC J0626-6 |
| Court | High Court (Saint Vincent) |
| Docket Number | CIVIL SUIT NO.366 OF 1997 |
| Date | 26 June 2000 |
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
CIVIL SUIT NO.366 OF 1997
This case commenced as a simple land dispute. By the time the last of the amended pleadings had been filed, after the trial had commenced, it had metamorphosed into a dispute over the administration of an intestate's estate.
By a specially endorsed writ issued on 1 October 1997, the Plaintiff claimed to be in possession one acre, three roods, and eight poles of land at Fairhall in St Vincent described in the 1956 deed of Wilhelmina David. She claimed that the Defendant wrongfully entered the land in 1996 and began to dig a foundation for a house. The Defendant ceased building when spoken to by the Plaintiff's father Henry Richardson, but resumed construction in 1997. The Plaintiff claimed,inter alia, a declaration that he was a trespasser and an order for him to remove his house.
By an Amended Defence, filed with leave on the first day of trial, the Defendant admitted that the land had belonged to Wilhelmina David. He claimed that after Wilhelmina David had died on 7 July 1970, intestate, her husband Edwin David had taken out Letters of Administration in 1974. Edwin David by a Deed of Assent in 1974 had granted and conveyed a portion of land of the Intestate to Glorianna Bruce the sister of the Intestate. The land in dispute formed a part of the land conveyed in 1974 by Edwin David to Glorianna Bruce. Glorianna Bruce had remained in possession until her death in 1988. Upon her death, her son Selwin in 1988 had applied for Letters of Administration which had been granted to him in 1997. The Defendant had worked a piece of the land of Glorianna Bruce with the permission of Selwyn Bruce since 1991. In 1996 Selwyn Bruce had sold a house lot to the Defendant. Selwyn Bruce had given the Defendant a deed for the land in 1988. The Defendant and his predecessors in title had been in exclusive possession since 1975, and any title of the Plaintiff had been extinguished by Section 5 of theReal Property Limitation Act, Cap 90. Those are the principle claims of the Amended Defence.
By an Amended Reply filed on 31 May 2000, before the filing of the Amended Defence described above, filed on 1 June 2000, but based on an earlier draft of the Amended Defence which had apparently been previously served on the Plaintiff, the Plaintiff replied as follows. Glorianna Bruce was not a child of the Intestate, Wilhelmina Bruce. She was not entitled to any portion of the estate of Wilhelmina Bruce. Her deed of assent was void and of no legal effect. Glorianna Bruce had never gone into possession of the lands. Edwin David was a trustee of the lands of Wilhelmina Bruce. He could not have lawfully disposed of trust property to Glorianna Bruce who was not next-of-kin or a beneficiary of the Intestate. Wilhelmina Bruce had left as her survivors only her husband, Edwin David, and her daughter, Doreen Bennett. Doreen Bennett had died intestate in 1976 leaving her only child, the Plaintiff Shirley Joseph, entitled to her share in the estate of Wilhelmina David. The Letters of Administration granted to Edwin David had falsely alleged that Glorianna Bruce and others were entitled to her estate.The said Grant was void. The deed of assent from Edwin David to Glorianna Bruce was void. The Letters of Administration were void. The deed of assent of Selwyn Bruce to himself of 1998 was void. The deed of 1998 from Selwyn Bruce to the Defendant was void. Even if Glorianna Bruce had entered into possession, that possession had been referable to the void Grant, and the mere passing of title deeds from one person to the other did not confer lawful title. The Defendant had been served with the writ in this case prior to his deed. The Defendant was not a bona fide purchaser for value of a legal estate without notice. The Plaintiff contended that the land in dispute was part of trust property and remained trust property. I pause to note that most of the issues argued at length at the conclusion of the case, arose for the first time in this Amended Reply filed on 31 May 2000. That was the substance of the pleadings.
The court heard testimony from only four witnesses. The first witness was Shirley Joseph, the Plaintiff. She was supported by her father, Henry Richardson. The Defendant gave evidence, and he was supported by Selwyn Bruce from whom he had purchased the land in dispute. There were several exhibits put in evidence by the Plaintiff without objection by the Defendant. These exhibits included various birth and death certificates, deeds, and Grants of Letters of Administration, and the whole files of the applications for the Grants in the estates of both Wilhelmina David and Glorianna Bruce.
From all of this evidence I find the following facts. First, as regards the historical events, there is not much dispute between the parties. There is considerable dispute over what happened more recently, in the past 3 or 4 years. What appears to have happened is as follows. In the year 1956, by deed No 519/1956 Wilhelmena David purchased, in the quaint description of land still to this day current in St Vincent, "one acre, three roods, and eight poles" of land at Fairhall. In the same year, her husband, Edwin David, purchased an adjoining parcel, separated from her parcel only by a cart road, consisting of "two acres, three roods, and thirty-two poles." Wilhelmena David had one daughter, born on 6 July1924, prior to her marriage to Edwin David, when she was known as Wilhelmena Bruce. That daughter was Doreen Bruce, also called Doreen Bennett. Doreen Bennett was not the daughter of Edwin David, Wilhelmena Bruce's subsequent husband. Doreen Bennett later had a daughter, Shirley Bennett, the Plaintiff in this case, on 19 May 1941. Wilhelmena David died on 7 July 1970. Doreen Bennett died shortly after, on 25 September 1976. When Wilhelmena David died, her heirs under the Administration of Estates Act, Cap 1 of the 1966 Edition of the Laws of St Vincent and the Grenadines, which was the operative Act at the time, were her husband Edwin David, entitled to one-third of her estate, and her daughter, Doreen Bennett, entitled to the other two-thirds. After the death in 1970 of her mother, Wilhelmena David, Doreen Bennett continued to live in the old home of her mother with her step-father Edwin David until she died in 1976. Meanwhile, the Plaintiff, Shirley Bennett, had emigrated to the United Kingdom in the year 1961. After Doreen Bennett died in 1976, Edwin David continued to live in the old home until he died two years later on 13 December 1978.
On 8 April 1971, Edwin David had applied for Letters of Administration to the estate of his late wife, Wilhelmena David. In his oath of administration he falsely swore that his wife had left her surviving only her four sisters, Ioana, Rosa, Adella, and Glorianna Bruce, and himself, her widower. He should instead have instructed his solicitor who prepared the application about the existence of Wilhelmena's daughter, Doreen Bennett, but he evidently failed to do so. At this time, Doreen Bennett was living in the house with him, and she would continue to do so until she died in 1976. He was at all times well aware of her existence. The sisters of Wilhelmena David were, therefore, not heirs of Wilhelmena David. Only the daughter, Doreen Bennett, and the widower were under the provisions of the above Act, the lawful heirs of Wilhelmena David. It was not disputed by the Defendant that this was a fraudulent application by Edwin David. The only asset of the estate of Wilhelmena David he swore to in his application for the Grant was the very parcel of land purchased by his late wife in 1956. He claimed for himself in his application 7/12 of an acre of that land, or just over half an acre, while hedeclared that each of the sisters was entitled to 7/24 of an acre. A Grant was duly made on 9 September 1974 in his favour on his fraudulent application described above. It was not disputed by the Defendant that this was a fraudulent Grant. On 4 July 1975, Edwin David by a vesting assent expressed himself to "grant and convey" one quarter of an acre of Wilhelmena David's land in favour of Glorianna Bruce, one of the sisters he had wrongfully named as being an heir, being her share of the estate. This deed is registered as No 1165A/1975. All during this time, Doreen Bennett was still living, and sharing the house of her late mother with her step-father Edwin David. According to her death certificate, she would die the following year, 1976, at the relatively young age of 51 from complications arising from "essential hypertension." Her daughter, the Plaintiff, knew nothing of what her step-grandfather was doing with the estate of his late wife and her grandmother, as she was in England.
In the year 1975, before Edwin David's death in 1978, according to the evidence of Henry Richardson, the father of the Plaintiff, which evidence I accept, Edwin David put him, Henry Richardson, in charge of his, Edwin David's and his late wife's lands. Edwin David, as previously mentioned, owned the adjacent land. He evidently had other children to whom he transferred various lots before he died. He left some of his lands undistributed. He appears, at the very least, to have treated his wife's land as her "family land," and to have intended to share it out among her sisters. I am not satisfied that he had any intention of unlawfully enriching himself from his wife's lands. He was, at the least, mistaken in his understanding of his duty towards his late wife's estate. In the event, the only part of his late wife's land that he appears to have given a deed to was the parcel of land described above transferred to his late wife's sister Glorianna Bruce. Henry Richardson had been responsible for the burial of Edwin David, and after his death...
To continue reading
Request your trial