Browne v Lovell et Al

• Jurisdiction: Barbados
• Judge: Husbands, J.
• Judgment Date: 20 September 1979
• Neutral Citation: BB 1979 HC 43
• Docket Number: No. 540 of 1976
• Court: High Court (Barbados)
• Date: 20 September 1979

High Court

Husbands, J.

No. 540 of 1976

Browne

and

Lovell et al

Mr. C. A. Phillips, S. C. and Mr. W. I. Griffith for the defendant.

Mr. J. A. Connell for the claimant.

Real property - Ownership

Husbands, J.

1 In a foreclosure action in which the defendant is seeking title to an area of some 6 520 square feet of land at Upper Carter's Gap, Enterprise, in the parish of Christ Church, the claimant, Nathaniel Walcott has filed this claim.

2 The claimant Walcott disputes the defendant's right of ownership and claims the land as the heir of his father, James Price whose mother the deceased Moriah Price he says was the original owner of the land. He avers that be put the defendant in possession as a tenant at will under a family arrangement of a house spot of some 2,400 square feet, a part of the said parcel of 6 520 square feet. In the alternative he asks the court to hold that on the death of Moriah Price the land escheated to the Crown.

3 The claimant Walcott's case is that his deceased grandmother Moriah Price owned some 11 520 square feet of land at Enterprise, Christ Church of which this parcel of 6,520 square feet forms a part. His father James Price married his mother Mary Walcott when he, Walcott was a boy “growing up and working”. His father and mother never lived on the land in question but his father used to cultivate it even prior to Moriah's death. Walcott says that there was a liaison between his father and Albertha Lovell, the mother of the defendant, Lillian Lovell. Albertha lived next door to the land in question and his father used to be “at Albertha backward and forward”.

4 The claimant Walcott explains the presence of the defendant Lillian on the land in this way. He says that when his father, James died in 1941, shortly thereafter Albertha was permitted to move on to the land in dispute. Walcott says “I remember how Albertha came on the land. Me and my uncle Richard Lashley put Albertha on the land. Albertha had a little chattel house. Richard and I put Albertha on a house spot on the land in question.” When Albertha became ill in 1941 her daughter, the defendant Lillian went to reside with her and Walcott states in his affidavit that when Albertha died “Lillian Lovell was in straightened financial circumstances and some of my relatives and I allowed her to live in the house in which her mother lived and allowed Lillian to use the remainder of the land not comprised in the house...