Stanford International Bank Ltd v Lapps et Al

• Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda
• Judge: Mitchell, J
• Judgment Date: 16 September 2002
• Neutral Citation: AG 2002 HC 31
• Court: High Court (Antigua)
• Date: 16 September 2002
• Docket Number: ANUHCV 0239 of 1996

High Court

Mitchell, J.

ANUHCV 0239 of 1996

Stanford International Bank Limited

and

Lapps et al

Appearances:

Dr. Errol Cort for the claimant.

Dane Hamilton for the defendant Brian Cottle for the Third Party.

Real Property - Wrongful eviction — Damages — Claimant evicted defendant in violent way and without warning — Awarded general damages in the sum of $270,000.00.

Real Property - Ownership — Claimant pleaded a lease of land and complained of the wrongful occupation by the defendant of the land and sought an order that the defendant give up possession — Defendant claimed land had been made available to him under a contractual licence by the Government approximately 25 years previously — Whether the defendant had any legal or equitable interest in the land in dispute to permit him to continue to resist the efforts of the claimant as registered owner to recover possession — Judgment for the claimant.

Mitchell, J

1 This is a land dispute between two neighbours. They each claim an interest in the land in dispute as a result of a lease (in the case of the claimant) or an agreement to lease (in the case of the defendant) the land in question from the Crown. The claimant is a banking company with premises adjacent to the VC Bird International Airport. The defendant is the proprietor of the neighbouring Airport Hotel. The Attorney General appears in the action having been served with a third-party notice. The Attorney General played no part in the proceedings, and is content to await the determination of the dispute between the two contending parties.

2 The case commenced by way of a specially endorsed writ issued out of the Registry of the High Court on 11 September 1996. The claimant pleaded a lease of 3,06 acres of land registered as Registration Section Barnes Hill & Coolidge, Block 41 2094A, Parcel 384. The claimant complained of the wrongful occupation by the defendant of a portion of Parcel 384, and sought an order that the defendant give up possession, an injunction restraining him from using any part of the Parcel, damages, and costs. By his defence filed on 4 October 1996, the defendant claimed that a portion of Parcel 384 had been made available to him under a contractual licence by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda approximately 25 years previously. He claimed that the Government had subsequently, in June 1991, leased him or agreed to lease him for 25 years an area of land that included the portion of Parcel 384 in dispute at a rent of $1,200.00 per year, and that in reliance on this he had built six apartments on his adjoining lands.

3 The defendant counterclaimed for special damages for the loss of use of the of his hotel caused by the installation by the claimant on its neighbouring lands of a high capacity stand-by generator, the noise from it constituting a nuisance such that no one could occupy the six apartments; he also sought special damages resulting from the fencing in by the claimant of his a portion of Parcel 384 and the propagation on it of plants and shrubs that deprived him of his right to light; he also sought special damages for a trespass by the claimant on about 30 August 1996 when the claimant had cut his fence and removed his construction materials including steel, plywood and lumber. He sought a declaration that he was either the lawful lessee of the part of Parcel 384 that he occupies or a contractual licensee of it, an order prohibiting the claimant from trespassing on the land, damages, and various orders relating to the generator and the plants. On 18 October 1996 the claimant's reply and defence to counterclaim was filed. The claimant denied that the noise from the generator was so loud as to cause a nuisance to the defendant or to occupiers of his property, or that its plants blocked the defendant's right to light. The claimant admitted entering a portion of Parcel 384 on or around 30 August 1996, but denied removing any construction material. The request for hearing had been filed on 11 November 1997, and the matter had been ready for hearing ever since.

4 As a result of a number of case management orders made by the Master and by the Court at Pre-trial Hearings, the matter proceeded to trial on the basis of filed witness statements, the witnesses making themselves available for cross-examination, and with all documents having been exchanged and lodged in a core trial bundle. Legal submissions at the conclusion of the trial were all in writing, with both counsel having the opportunity to add any further oral argument but declining to do so. The witnesses for the claimant were Juan Rodriguez-Tolentino and Lounel Stevens. Juan Rodriguez-Tolentino is the Chief Operating Officer of the claimant. Lounel Stevens is and has been for the past 25 years the Secretary to the Cabinet of the government of Antigua and Barbuda. The sole witness for the defendant was Austin Lapps himself. The defendant is an elderly man, not presently in good health. Counsel for the claimant declined to cross-examine him at the trial. He testified to his use of the portion of Parcel 384 over the years and of promises made to him by the Prime Minister and Minister Hilroy Humphreys. The Attorney General had filed no witness statements and called no evidence.

5 The relevant facts as I find them are as follows. In or about the year 1966, the defendant commenced doing a car rental business on an area of land previously sold to him by the Government and situate close to the Coolidge International Airport, now styled the VC Bird International Airport. In about the year 1970, he was permitted to use an additional area of about 0.6 of an acre of Crown land adjacent to his car rental agency. He occupied the property openly and with consent, acknowledging the title of the Crown to the land, and constituting himself a tenant at will of the property. During the Cadastral Survey of 1976, this 0.6 acres of land was surveyed as part of Crown lands in the area, and it now forms part of Parcel 384 and is the land in dispute. The defendant initially used it as a parking lot for his car rental business. Around the time of the land registration process in Antigua in the year 1976, he approached government ministers with a proposal to purchase the 0.6 acre portion of Crown land that he was occupying. He was told to wait the completion of the airport expansion project then in progress so that government could ascertain whether it needed the use of the land. In the year 1984, he again approached government ministers to discuss acquiring the land. Shortly thereafter, he commenced construction of his Airport Hotel on the land that he had earlier acquired from the Crown, and the hotel opened for business in 1987. In 1991 he again approached the government ministers with a proposal to purchase the part of Parcel 384 that he was occupying as a parking area. He claims that various politicians, the Prime Minister and Minister Hilroy Humphreys in particular, told him that he would get a 99-year lease of the land.

6 The claimant Company subsequently commenced doing banking business in the capital city of St John's, and in early 1994 moved to its present premises at Airport Boulevard on land acquired from the Crown, next to the defendant's property. In the year 1995, agents of the claimant approached the defendant with offers to purchase his hotel and the lands he occupied. He refused to sell. Later that year, in October, i.e., shortly after Hurricane Luis, the claimant Company took up and fenced in the 0.6 acre part of Parcel 384 that the defendant had been occupying and established a plant nursery on it. The defendant went back into possession and prevented the claimant from further using the land, and placed a quantity of construction materials on it. In July 1996, the claimant was granted by the Crown a 99-year lease of Parcel 384, which was subsequently registered in the Land Registry. On Friday 6 September 1996, the claimant's men with trucks, forklifts, a crane hoist, a grader, and a front end loader, accompanied by a police escort, entered the land in dispute. The cut down the defendant's fence and took up and removed from the site the building materials on it that were then being used for the expansion of the hotel from 12 to 40 rooms. As a result, the construction schedule was disrupted. The writ was issued by the claimant at this point and various interlocutory proceedings ensued. On Monday 11 November 1996, the claimant, in defiance of the order of the court, once more sent its servants and agents onto the land and again removed the defendant's building materials and fencing and threw them onto the road side. They placed piles of debris on the land. The result was that the defendant had to apply for and obtained an order for the claimant to remove the debris. The defendant continues to occupy a portion of the land in dispute.

7 In July 1996, the claimant was granted by the Crown a 99-year lease of Parcel 384, which was subsequently registered in the Land Registry.

8 The claimant referred in argument to the following authorities:

Walsh v. Lonsdale [1882] 21 Ch D 9

Coatsworth v. Johnson [1886-90] All E.R. Rep 547

National Providence Bank Ltd v. Hastings Car Mart Ltd [1964] 1 All E.R. 688 ; [1965] 2 All E.R. 472

Heslop v. Burns [1974] 3 All E.R. 406

Young v. Bess (1985) 46 W.I.R. 165

Village Cay Marina v. Ackland and others [BVI Civil Appeal No 8 of 1995, unreported]

Crown Lands (Regulation) Act, Cap. 120 Registered Land Act, Cap. 374

Cheshire and Burns Modern Law of Real Property, 13th Edition, pages 370-386, 448-449

Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol 27, 4th Edition, paragraphs 6--68 and 167-174

The defendant referred in argument to the following authorities:

Attorney-General v. McDoom (1960) 2 W.I.R. 373

Udit v. Macouba Co-operative Land Society Ltd (1961) 3 W.I.R. 244

Frazer v. Walker [1967] 1...