High Court Judge Frank Seepersad has ordered that two Tobago siblings and their cousin must share a property that includes a popular Tobago bakery, ending a long-standing property fight.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Seepersad ordered that Dr Lancelot Cowie and his sister, Angela Cowie-Adams, have no paper title rights and interest over the bakery, located in Carnbee Tobago.
Seepersad ruled that their cousin, Ian Darlington, had adversely possessed the bakery building and the lands to the North West of the building, where a cesspit and diesel tank are located for over 16 years before the action was brought.
Seepersad also ordered that Darlington, his agents and his customers are entitled to unrestricted access to the garage and bakery parking areas.
In the 17-page ruling, Seepersad also ordered Darlington to relocate water tanks that were placed in a portion of the driveway.
Darlington was ordered to refrain from any activity to block entry to the driveway or use of the driveway, which also leads to a dwelling house on the same property.
Both parties were ordered to bear their legal costs.
According to court documents, Cowie and Cowie-Adams claimed ownership of the almost 30,000-square-foot property, which was purchased by their grandparents and Darlington’s great-grandparents, George and Caroline Cowie around 1937.
The Cowie and Cowie-Adams siblings claimed that their grandparents built a house and established the bakery on the property.
They also alleged that their mother Hillary and her sister Susanna, who was Darlington’s grandmother, worked with their grandmother to develop the bakery business.
When their grandmother passed away in 1971 without leaving a will, their mother and her five siblings, including Darlington’s grandmother, were set to inherit the disputed property and other family properties.
After Darlington’s grandmother passed away in 1985, their mother allowed his parents to run the bakery business. In 1998, their mother took out a $600,000 mortgage with her siblings’ consent and financial assistance to perform renovation works on the property. The siblings claimed that their mother applied for letters of administration for their grandmother’s estate in 2000.
They claimed that after the deed of conveyance was issued after the sale, they informed Darlington and told him he could continue to operate the bakery on the property.
After their mother died in 2013, the siblings said they did more repairs on the property, while Darlington allegedly approached them to use the deed for the property to obtain a bank loan to construct an annex to the bakery. The siblings refused, and Darlington claimed adverse possession over the property, prompting a legal dispute.
The siblings were seeking a declaration that they are the lawful owners of the entire property and an injunction barring Darlington from undertaking further construction work on the property. Darlington brought a counter claim in which he contended that he was entitled to the paper title of the portion of the land occupied by the building that houses the bakery under the Real Property Limitation Act.
Darlington was represented by Rajiv Rickhi, Deborah Moore-Miggins, Shveta Parasram, and Ria Ramoutar. The siblings were represented by Kofi Mc Intyre and Karen Piper.
