Sisters fight for $M estate

TWO SISTERS, the daughters of the late paving contractor Ajodha Persad Coosal, are now engaged in a major legal battle to get their father’s estate.

One of them, Karen Persad Coosal, a Coast Guard sailor, has gone so far as to obtain a paternity order from the High Court to prove she was Coosal’s daughter. She was also granted the letters of administration for her father’s estate which was worth $6,921,244 in 2001. But the companies which her father owned — Coosal’s Quarry Limited and Coosal’s Asphalt and Paving Company  — were sold and her father’s shares no longer exist. “My sister is finding life difficult in the United States with two children. I am working in the Coast Guard and I cannot get a house of my own. The NHA is giving me a runaround. I am seeking what is rightfully mine and that of my sister,” Karen said yesterday.

Karen, 27, filed a writ in the Port-of-Spain High Court on July 10, 2002, against William Lucie-Smith, receiver, the Attorney General, and Coosal’s Construction Company Limited, seeking what she believes should be hers, according to the letters of administration dated Decem-ber 19, 2001. The matter came up for hearing this week and was adjourned to Monday. Patricia Roberts appeared for Karen, while Seenath Jairam SC represented Coosal’s. According to court documents Ajodha Persad-Coosal died at the Caura Chest Hospital on July 18, 1989, at the age of 50.  At the time of his death, Persad was the owner of the two companies with 99 percent shares. Persad had 12,593,370 shares in Coosal’s Quarry Limited which was incorporated on December 31, 1986, while his brother Sieunarine Persad had 71,230 shares.

Coosal’s Asphalt and Paving Company was incorporated on March 14, 1978, with a share capital of five million shares. Persad had 610,000 shares in this company. Coosal’s Quarry issued a debenture in favour of the Development Finance Company (DFC) on March 4, 1983, to secure repayment in the sum of $3 million with interest. The company fell into arrears and a demand was made. When the company failed, DFC appointed Lucie-Smith as receiver. Coosal’s Asphalt and Paving Company also issued a debenture in favour of DFC and it also fell into arrears. Lucie-Smith came in as receiver. By a deed of conveyance dated November 11, 1991, the assets of the two companies were sold to Coosal’s Construction Company, which was incorporated on January 13, 1989, for $100 and the transfer was described as being made “absolutely free from all encumbrances.” In this new company, Sieunarine Persad had 4,975,000 shares and another brother Manikram, 25,000 shares.

Karen Persad Coosal and her sister Clarissa were born to a relationship between Ajodha Persad and his common law wife Sylvia Seerattan. At that time, the sisters lived with their mother at St Joseph. According to Karen, she and her sister were the only children born to Persad, although she admitted they came into this world out of wedlock. In her effort to prove that she was Persad’s second daughter, Karen had to seek a paternity order from the High Court. This was granted on April 30, 1997. In December 1998, she joined the Coast Guard. She is now eight months’ pregnant and expecting her first baby. She has spent almost five years in the Coast Guard, has took part in parades in Trinidad and Tobago, and was a sailor aboard the TTS Nelson, which was rammed in a sea incident recently. Her sister Clarissa lives in Georgia, Atlanta, with two children. After getting the paternity order, Karen filed an application for the letters of administration in 1998. But she was not granted the letters of administration until December 19, 2001. The estate includes properties at Maracas, St Joseph, Curepe, Chaguanas, and Valencia.