The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday overturned a ruling by the Guyana Court of Appeal, ending a decades-long land dispute between two Essequiban brothers, when it ruled that adverse possession of the land by one, trumped any titled interest of the other.
Judgment in the case of Kowsal Narine versus his brother Deonarine Natram and former owners of the land Ashbourne Lipton Chan and Foster Gilford Chan, was delivered yesterday, with the CCJ ruling that Narine had been in “sole and undisturbed possession of the land since 1st June 1991 and that any title, right or interest of Deonarine had been extinguished pursuant to the Act.” The ruling affirmed a High Court decision made by Justice Roxane George, who had ruled that Narine had been entitled to the land through prescriptive rights.
“As to whether Kowsal acquired prescriptive title in his own right, the Court accepted his evidence and found that he had satisfied the requirements of section 3 of the Act. He had been in sole and undisturbed possession of the land since 1st June 1991 when the gratuitous licence granted by the Chans terminated upon the death of his father,” the judgment stated.
