Woman ordered out of home

Justice Frank Seepersad frowned upon the treatment meted out to Gyatrie Sirju, 43, of Dumfries Road, Rambert Village, La Romaine, whom he gave 90 days to vacate the matrimonial home where she lived for 18 years with husband Kenneth Sirju, 41.

The judge described her as a woman who cared for her husband when he got blind, raised funds to pay his medical bills and paid the mortgage on the property even after he died. She never knew that Sirju quietly transferred ownership of the house and land to his nephew. In typical East Indian fashion of wanting properties to pass on from generation to generation, Justice Seepersad said Sirju, almost on his death bed, wanted to give his nephew the million-dollar property.

“But women ought not to be used and treated simply as caretakers,” the judge said.

Even as he found that the transfer was a valid one, Justice Seepersad commented, “The bonds, obligations and rights that a marriage impose should always be revered and respected and women should not be deprived of their legitimate entitlement because of adherence to archaic traditions.” In 2001 when his eyesight began to fail, Sirju was retired medically unfit from the Police Service. Gyatrie, living with him since 1999, began to work at a jewelry store in San Fernando for $600 a week. She worked a second job to make ends. Gyatrie held a barbecue fund-raiser to pay for her husband’s eye surgery. Together, they scratched and save and constructed a house which today is valued at about $2 million.

In a written judgement yesterday, Justice Seepersad stated that Sirju deliberately neglected to inform his wife that he had transferred the property to his nephew Kenneth.

Sirju, Kenneth and his (Kenneth) father never informed Gyatrie about the transfer. Gyatrie believed she would inherit the house and land and so, continued to pay the mortgage after Sirju’s death in 2012. After her husband’s death, Sirju applied for her husband’s estate which was granted and she continued to live in the house, unaware that the property was already transferred to her husband’s nephew.

The couple did not have children and after her husband’s death, she was slapped with a lawsuit by the nephew, who was 18 at the time, seeking to have her give up possession of the property.

The judge ruled that Sirju’s transfer to nephew Kenneth is legitimate and the property must go to him. However, the widow Sirju is entitled to a share and interest in the property.

Justice Seepersad ordered that a valuation report be prepared within the next 30 days and a third of whatever value is ascribed to the property should be paid to Sirju within 90 days.

She was also ordered to vacate the property within 90 days of receipt of the money.