5 weeks ago, 7News told you about the land dispute, which flared up between the Yearwood Family and Senior Counsel Rodwell Williams, the law partner of Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
It involves a piece of land on Cemetery Lane; the family says that the land has been in their family for 109 years, which was clearly set out in the will of their ancestor, Richard Codlin Young, making sure that his descendants should keep ownership.
Rodwell Williams says that a piece of the land belongs to him, and he's produced land title, which came into existence on October 24, 2007, and which says that he owns it.
As we showed you, the Yearwood family says that this claim is not legitimate because the Williams family was granted lodging to build on the piece of land he's claiming with the understanding that they would move when they could.
Well, since that stand-off between the Yearwood family in October, Rodwell Williams Jr. brought an ex-parte injunction application to court against Gary Yearwood, Sharett Yearwood, Elaine Yearwood, and Keith Yearwood, who you saw being the most vocal against the installation of the yellow food hut on the piece of land under contention.
Their attorneys, Audrey Matura-Shepherd and Anthony Sylvester, brought an application to discharge that injunction, and after that issue was dealt with in the interest of case management, Justice Rita Olivetti attempted to bring both sides to an agreement to leave the issue as it is until the land dispute is settled. The Yearwood family gave an undertaking to the court that they would respect the court's wishes. Rodwell Williams Jr., who was represented by attorney Nigel Ebanks, accepted that undertaking, but refused to give one saying that he has title and should be allowed to use the land as he sees fit.
After the hearing, 7News spoke to Audrey Matura-Shepherd, who explained what they've unearthed about how it is that Rodwell Williams acquired title to the land:
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, attorney
"After the incident that weekend we decided that we will pay researchers to go and find and trace the route of title to see how it pass hand. We were able to get some documents from the Lands Department. I do not know who was stalling or if there was error, but we were having a very hard time getting access to the documents. There is still one that we need to see. What we will tell you is that interestingly, in 1998 Mr. Rodwell Williams Senior, the father, because the land is in the father's name, not the junior's name, applied for this land by prescription. Prescription means it's like squatters' rights, you've been there and you're saying I've been here undisturbed and I wanted the land. What was interesting is that they applied for that then they went to court in 1999 and when they went
to court, we would say, without proper evidence, they granted him that order that he was asking for so that he could get title. Then he applied to the Lands Department but it was until 2007 that they applied to the Lands Department but what's critical here is that at no point were these people who were living on this land, whose family have been there time immemorial ever knew that this was afoot. And so you have to understand what is happening too, you're dealing with an attorney who clearly knows everything and every nuance how to get it done and I'm calling him out on that. We are dealing with some people, average folks who don't have that kind of learning so they were never given any notice or anything. These people were not exaggerating and that was important to ventilate that in the court, that they never knew that he even had title. You have to understand that it was a shocker, not only that he had title but then that you bring the BDF and the police to enforce this title and you refuse to give them a copy there and then."
"We were here at court to deal with a case of trespass. We haven't brought our claim to deal with the issue of title and it is true, on the face of it they don't have a title like we said. The quandary has been how come Mr. Rodwell Williams senior ended up with the title and all that went into getting his that title. That doesn't mean that they don't have a claim to that land. You have to remember, they don't have title to the entire land. Block 404 was a parcel of land owned by a family passed down from family to family. The will is specific how it's done."
According to Matura-Shepherd, the family refuses to simply accept that Rodwell Williams acquired legitimate title to the land. She adds that they will press for this issue to be examined by the court because they don't accept that Rodwell Williams Sr. should have been granted leave to apply for title for the land by prescription, meaning that he was squatting undisturbed.
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