Cox v Replay Investments Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Bahamas
• Judge: Hall, J.
• Judgment Date: 18 April 1991
• Date: 18 April 1991
• Court: Supreme Court (Bahamas)
• Docket Number: Common Law Side No. 1360 of 1986

Supreme Court

Hall, J.

Common Law Side No. 1360 of 1986

Cox

and

Replay Investments Ltd.

Appearances:

Mr. Andrew Thompson for plaintiff

Mr. Edward Turner for defendant

Real property - Vendor and purchaser — Plaintiff grandmother of principal of defendant company — Plaintiff 85 years old, illiterate woman — Whether there was undue influence — Plaintiff not having independent legal advice — Plaintiff conveyancing land to defendant company — Attorney having personal and professional relationship with principal of defendant company — Judgment for defendant.

Hall, J.

1 The plaintiff is the grandmother of Dr. Nigel Lewis who is the principal of the defendant company. The present suit arises out of the failure of the family members to resolve their differences in respect of a certain tract of land in the Carmichael Road area which the plaintiff has farmed for most of her life — since about 1930.

2 The plaintiff is at present 85 years old. She is effectively illiterate: her reading being confined to large print editions of The Bible and she does not write at all. She claims to have farmed over an area comprising some 43 acres at Carmichael Road. She petitioned they Supreme Court for a certificate of title under the Quieting Title Act 1959 in Equity Action 79/1968 but her petition was dismissed and a certificate was granted to the adverse claimant in that action, Bahamas Land and Finance Company Ltd. It is apparent that the plaintiff never accepted the outcome of that action which disturbed her greatly so much that other family members negotiated with Mr. William McPherson Christie, President of Island Property Investments Ltd — the new name for Bahamas Land and Finance Company Ltd—to convey a portion of the land to the plaintiff. Dr. Lewis played a leading part in the negotiations with Mr. Christie which culminated in a conveyance of 10.89 acres of the land to the plaintiff on 23 December' 1980 for the consideration of one dollar.

3 In her evidence, the plaintiff testified that she had asked Dr. Lewis to check out the conveyance from Mr. Christie “to see if it is straight”: Dr. Lewis showed her the conveyance but she did not keep it, giving it to him for safe keeping along with papers for two other pieces of property which she owns. She describes Dr. Lewis as her eldest grandchild whom she had helped to raise and school and who used to assist her in the sale of the produce of the land she farmed. She claims that she never saw the conveyance again and she later sent another grandson, Mr. Rodney Moncur, to the Office of the Registrar General to see in which name the land was registered.

4 The plaintiff testifies that she had promised each of the children and some of her grandchildren — including Dr. Lewis — a part of the land. She denies ever having conveyed the land to the defendant and her recollection is that it was only after she had discovered that the land was registered in the name of the defendant that she, accompanied by her then attorney, Mr. Craig Roberts, visited the Office of Mr. Brian Moree whom she had learned to be the attorney for Dr. Lewis. She denies that Dr. Lewis was present on any of her visits to Mr. Moree's office and she denies marking an “X” on the conveyance to the defendant.

5 The plaintiff testifies that as she understood it no one paid Mr. Christie for the 11 acres she got; Dr. Lewis never told her he had paid for the land. Further, she does not understand why she only got 11 of the 43 acres.

6 Mr. Moncur testified that it was in about 1984 that he searched the land register in the Office of the Registrar General and discovered the conveyance to the Defendant. He then checked the Companies Register and discovered that his cousin, Dr. Lewis, was the President of the defendant company. When he communicated his discovery to the plaintiff she was “extremely angry”.

7 Dr. Lewis in his evidence describes the hearing of equity action 79/1968 as “long drawn out and acrimonious “. The whole family was disappointed at the decision of the court but the plaintiff was particularly affected. After another relative had purchased 10 acres from Mr. Christie she felt “let down” and Dr. Lewis and one of his uncles, Dudley Cox, negotiated with Mr. Christie to purchase 12+ acres for $10,000. Dr. Lewis paid for the land as he “was the only person able and willing to pay for it” and he exhibited a copy of a receipt for a manager's cheque for $10,000 in favour of Higgs and Johnson attorney for Island Property Investments—purchased by Dr. Nigel Lewis from the Bank of Nova Scotia on 23 December 1980—the same date as the conveyance to the plaintiff. He says that a later examination of the description and plan of the property thus conveyed revealed that approximately 2 acres of what had been negotiated had been separately sold to Dudley Cox.

8 Dr. Lewis recalls that the plaintiff could never accept that any money had to be paid to Mr. Christie for the land and, when he informed her of this a few months later, she was extremely upset and was angry that other family members had not contributed. He continued:–

“… At the end of the day she decided to turn the land over to us. She, my mother and wife went with her to Brian Moree's office. He explained the procedure and she signed. We did not force her to take it. She forced us. Mr. Moree said that you had to put a value on the property so I said it was probably worth $15,000 so let's put $15,000 on it …”.

9 He said that a few years later she asked why the property was in a company's name and he told her that he owned the company so it did not make a...