In what could erupt into another hot political issue, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday against Bozine Town residents, declaring that they have no legal title to the land where some were living for six decades.
The Court, which previously awarded title of the 148-acre land to Harrold Road Land Development Company (LANDCO), merely restated that the company had full rights to the property.
The decision again puts the 4000-plus residents at risk of being served eviction notices. However, Attorney Wayne Munroe, representing LANDCO, told The Guardian yesterday that the company was not seeking to go that route, but rather, to resolve the matter in a “civilised’ manner as it had been attempting to do in the past.
“We wished to talk about arriving at an arrangement where we could get satisfaction and these people could have satisfaction,” he said.
“But that’s not how they did it. They decided that they wanted to jump up and get involved unnecessarily in a conflict, which wasn’t our desire.
If that was our desire, we would have just told them: get off, not contact us to talk about it.”
Meantime Milton Evans, the attorney representing the residents, spoke to The Guardian as he prepared for an emergency meeting with the Bozine Town Steering Committee.
“We’re obviously not happy with the decision,” he said. “We haven’t decided to appeal. We just got it today (Thursday).”
Spokesperson for the Committee, Tyrone Brown, was also preparing for that meeting. He said he would reserve comment until after consulting Mr Evans.
Mr Munroe said LANDCO would be patient in an appeals process, as, “We know that Mr Milton Evans and Tameka Sawyer-Lockhart (from Evans and Co) must study the judgement to give their clients advice on whether to appeal. They actually would have four weeks within which to do that, arguably, and maybe as long as six weeks.
“If at the end of the day, their advice is not to appeal, then what we will do is talk to them as to where we go to from here,” he added.
In October 2004, LANDCO served the residents eviction notices, telling them to leave within a two-week period, or pay the company for the land. Mr Munroe was responsible for drafting that letter.
“From the very beginning we’ve written to these folks to tell them to: come, let’s talk, because we knew of the basis of their title,” he said. “The basis of their title was put before the court and was rejected.”
The residents then took their concerns to the media, which resulted in a bitter row between the two sides, lasting for many months. This prompted the then Attorney General, Alfred Sears to intervene, giving the residents a series of 30-day extensions that allowed them to remain on the land during the legal battle.
Mr Sears also called on a special team of lawyers to review the case of each resident.
Mr Evans said the matter was put before the Supreme Court as a result of him filing an action challenging the validity of LANDCO’s certificate of title. In response, the company filed an application to the high court seeking to have the action struck out.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
