Hodge v Hodge

• Jurisdiction: Anguilla
• Court: High Court (Saint Christopher, Nevis And Anguilla)
• Judge: Joseph, J.
• Judgment Date: 29 April 1983
• Neutral Citation: AI 1983 HC 1
• Docket Number: Civil Suit no. 52 of 1976
• Date: 29 April 1983

High Court

Joseph, J.

Civil Suit no. 52 of 1976

Hodge

and

Hodge

Appearances:

Mr. F. Kelsick for Appellant.

Dr. W. Herbert for Respondent.

Real property - Boundary — Possession —

Facts:

This was an appeal from the decision of the Land Adjudication Officer by virtue of section 24 of the Land Adjudication Ordinance 1974 in which it was held that the common boundary between the appellant A.H and I.G. was the boundary indicated by the latter. The issue was whether the appellant had made out a claim for long possession —

Held:

The area in dispute was the property of the respondents. The evidence given did not sufficiently establish that A.H. had exclusive possession of the disputed area from 1946 to 1953, and the appellant was dispossessed in 1962 before he obtained possession commencing 1954. Appeal dismissed, and decision of Adjudication Officer confirmed.

Joseph, J.

1 This is an appeal from the decision of the Land Adjudication Officer dated 23rd March 1976, under Sec. 24 of the Land Adjudication Ordinance 1974 (No. 2 of 1974) as amended, in which he held that the common boundary between Samuel Hodge and Irene Gumbs is the boundary as indicated by Irene Gumbs.

2 Dr. Herbert, in making a preliminary, point submitted that the procedure under the Land Adjudication Act had not, been followed in that there was a petition to Adjudication Officer's decision of 23rd March 1976 which failed: That a decision was given by the Adjudication Officer on 6th July 1976 and that this appeal ought to be against the latter decision not against the original decision.

3 In reply, Mr. Kelsick submitted that the decision of the Adjudication Officer was that the petition failed due to the non-appearance of the petitioner at the hearing.

4 Court ruled that it would hear the appeal by way of a re-hearing of the matter.

5 The appellant's case is that before his grandfather Brandy Hodge died he divided an area of land at Mt. Fortune between his four sons Abraham, Uncle Cobby, William Hodge and James Hodge the appellant's father. Abraham was permitted by Brandy Hodge, James Hodge and William Hodge to put a trash house at the end of William's land and his granddaughter Amabelle Vanterpool lived with her grandfather in this house. Appellant stated he was present when, before Abraham's death, William called him, his father James, his mother and Amabelle and told Amabelle that after Abraham's death she would have to leave the land as Abraham had only been permitted to live there.

6 After Abraham's death, the appellant was present when William told Amabelle she would have to leave and gave her time to do so.

7 Amabelle's husband finished his house in 1943: she left the land and William demolished the shack and threw the pieces on Abraham's share of land.

8 He described the land thus:–

9 On north side of Junks Hole Road was Uncle Abraham's share; on south side of the said road was Uncle William's share: adjoining was my father's and adjoining my father's land was Uncle Cobby's land.

10 After Abraham's house was removed the land was cultivated by the appellant's mother Augusta Hodge. When he returned from Aruba in 1953 he took over the cultivation of land from his mother and whenever he went to St. Thomas his wife Edita cultivated it.

11 He said that William Hodge gave a portion of land to his mother because she buried his (William's) father Brandy Hodge. He produced a document allegedly signed by William Hodge dated 15th August 1946, giving to his sister-in-law Augusta Hodge a piece of land situate in Mt. Fortune for cleaning and burying his father. The description of this portion of land appears later in this judgment.

12 In 1953 the appellant built his house on his father's portion of the land and employed and paid Amabelle and her children to pick up stones for the house.

13 There was a dry stone wall on the land that formed the boundary between Augusta's land and Abraham's land.

14 Edita Hodge stated when she came here in 1953 there was no house on Abraham Hodge's land. She met her mother-in-law working the disputed land and she worked it after her mother-in-law left for St. Kitts in 1957. Both of them cultivated the land in corn peas and potatoes. In 1953 Amabelle and Ethelinda were working an area on Abraham's land called Little Bottom.

15 In 1958 Irene Gumbs came from the States and Edita Hodge saw Irene Gumbs accompanied by seven or eight men move the wall about forty feet nearer to the cave.

16 Edita Hodge went to her brother-in-law James Hodge and they both went to Irene. James told Irene that Uncle William had informed Abraham Hodge that the land on which he (Abraham) was living was William's land and that he (William) was giving it to his sister-in-law for taking care of and burying his father. William said he wanted Amabelle to know about it because she came down in 1926 and after Abraham dies she would have to James then loft and returned with the police. The police told Irene not to trespass and to put back the bound wall. She did not put it back.

17 From St. Kitts Augusta wrote Irene a letter dated 19th April 1958 and sent a copy to James Hodge.

18 The text of the letter is that she (Augusta) had received information that Irene had broken down a wall that Augusta had put up as a bound: that Irene's father Abraham had been permitted to put his house on the spot which it had occupied as his land was not level and that Augusta had been given that bit of land by William Hodge in appreciation for burying his father. She advised Irene not to trespass on the land.

19 In 1962, Edita said Irene and other persons came about 7 to 8 o'clock in the night and moved the rocks which Irene then used as a foundation for her house. She told Irene she was wrong to move the wall from there. Edita spoke to James who accompanied the police to Irene.

20 Abraham's land was about an acre and a half. It was level land but rocky and Abraham put his house on William's land as he could not get a ‘sinking’ on his land.

21 The line of the original wall now runs through Irene's house.

22 The case for the respondent is that Irene Gumbs, who stated that she is 74, and Maude Richardson 85 years are the daughters of Abraham Hodge and are administratrix of his estate.

23 Irene went away when she was of age” to look for employment. She grew up on her father's land. He worked the land and pastured animals on the land and she knows the boundaries. The Southern boundary of her father's land is the Northern boundary of Samuel Hodge's land.

24 The description of the boundaries given by Irene Gumbs is:–

“There is a bound to Tommy Webster on East side going West to the road you come to a bound on cliff, next you come, to a bound by the cave, after the cave come to the public road.”

25 She said the road leading into Junks Hole Estate is ten acres away from her house; that there is a foot path leading towards Junks Hole Estate but it was not a boundary road. The track, she stated, run's from the public road through Abraham's land through...