Gumbs v Thomas

• Jurisdiction: Anguilla
• Court: High Court (Saint Christopher, Nevis And Anguilla)
• Judge: Joseph, J.
• Judgment Date: 28 May 1985
• Neutral Citation: AI 1985 HC 2
• Docket Number: Civil Suit. No. 27 of 1976
• Date: 28 May 1985

High Court

Joseph, J.

Civil Suit. No. 27 of 1976

Gumbs

and

Thomas

Appearances:

Mr. John Benjamin for appellant

Miss Walwyn for respondent

Real Property - Title —

Facts:

This was an appeal under section 24 of the Land Adjudication Ordinance 1974 from the decision of the Adjudication Officer in which he held that the disputed areas of land was owned by the respondent. The issue was whether the applicants were entitled to the disputed land by virtue of the deed of conveyance before the court. The court constructed the deed of conveyance and found that the disputed land was mentioned in the conveyance as being owned by different persons but it was actually owned by three persons. The court also found that the person under whom the appellants claimed was one of the three original owners —

Held:

The appeal would be allowed in part. An order would be made that thirty acres be registered in the personal representatives of the three mentioned owners, including the appellant, and the remainder of the land in the disputed area was owned by the respondent.

Joseph, J.

1 This is an appeal under Section 24 of the Land Adjudication Ordinance 1974 (No. 2 of 1974) from the decision of the Adjudication Officer dated 6th June, 1975 in which he held that the disputed area of land is owned by the respondent.

2 I heard the appeal as a rehearing of the dispute and the Court visited the locus in quo. The case for the appellant given in evidence of Lucille Gumbs is that she knows land in the dispute from the age of eight or nine years old as she accompanied her aunt Lucretia Gumbs to cultivate the land and that her aunt cultivated the land until 1940s. Her Aunt Jemima Gumbs pastured animals on the land until the 1960s.

3 She claims her grandfather Phonix Gumbs share in the land and produced a deed No. 1057 (exhibit C1) made 27th February 1901 and recorded in the Registry of High Court on 15th February 1901 by which George Thomas Edgar Gumbs conveyed to Thomas Hardy Gumbs (Lucille's uncle) Adrian Francisco Lake (Lucille's cousin) and Phoenix Gumbs (Lucille's grandfather) a parcel of land in the Statia Valley district being a part of the Estate commonly known as “Cortio” bound as follows

On East with lands of Amanda Richardson

On West with lands of William Thomas, (Having a Blawley tree as boundary mark on the North and from thence running due South to the sea shore).

On the North with the lands of the heirs of Thomas Lake deceased.

On the South with the sea shore.

4 This parcel consisting of thirty acres more or less.

5 She stated that her parents' land ran from the sea in the south to the north and that the lands of the Carneys was on the east of the land she claimed and ran from the sea to the north. She produced another document (exhibit C2) dated 16th April 1902...