Law Lords end 32-year-old battle for land

A 32-year-old land dispute involving two prominent families in Central Trinidad has finally been settled in the Privy Council.

The dispute lasted so long that one of the original attorneys in the case was former Opposition parliamentarian Simbhoonath Capildeo. When he died on August 5, 1990, the case was taken over by his son, Suren Capildeo, former UNC Senator. The dispute involved over three lots of land at Orange Field Road, Carapichaima. At the end of the case, the Law Lords ruled in favour of the Ramlal family ordering the Chaital family (substituting for Kanhai Mahase) to pay the costs of the entire case. Costs are expected to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Law Lords also remitted the case to the TT High Court for a judge to make a formal order, granting the land to the Ramlal family.

The appeal was heard before Lords Hope, Hutton, Scott, Walker and Sir Martin Nourse, who delivered the judgment. In 1971, Chanderlal Ramlal, a hardware merchant, entered into an agreement with Kanhai Mahase to buy three lots of land. Mahase reneged on the agreement and sold the lots to Jaglal, another hardware dealer. Ramlal sued for specific performance in 1974. Ramlal’s original attorney was former parliamentarian Simbhoonath Capildeo. After his death, he was replaced by his son, former UNC Senator Suren Capildeo.

The dispute over the lots of land went on for so many years that Devanand Ramlal, the son of Chanderlal Ramlal, had time to attend university, be admitted to the local bar, and subsequently appeared as Capildeo’s junior in the civil case. Devanand Ramlal is now chairman of TTEC. Clive Phelps appeared for Jaglal and Amrika Tiwary, now a High Court Judge, represented Mahase. Mahase and Jaglal lost in the TT Court of Appeal and appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. English Queen’s Counsel James Guthrie, assisted by Phelps, argued the Privy Council appeal for Jaglal. Ramlal was represented by British QC James Dingemanns, instructed by Capildeo.

The action was dismissed in the Port-of-Spain High Court by Justice Clebert Brooks on February 24, 1994, but the Court of Appeal comprising Justices Mustapha Ibrahim, Roger Hamel-Smith and Lionel Jones, allowed the appeal on May 12, 1999. In allowing the appeal, the TT Court of Appeal said Ramlal had not been guilty of the delay attributed to him, so that the sale by Mahase to Jaglal was unlawful. The Lords also found that Jaglal was aware of the 1971 agreement between Mahase and Ramlal. Sir Martin Nourse said the principal question for decision was whether, at a time when no abstract or document of title had been delivered to Ramlal, Mahase was entitled to give him a notice making the time specified for completion of the essence of the contract.

The Privy Council found that the material evidence consisted mainly of correspondence between the parties and their lawyers and referred extensively to letters of the firm of Capildeo and Capildeo. In evaluating the submissions of Queen’s Counsel for both parties, the Law Lords had to examine the differences in law and conveyancing practice in Trinidad and Tobago as opposed to that of the British system.