By Lesroy W. Williams Observer Reporter
(Basseterre, St. Kitts)”Justice has at last been served for Loris James. It took twenty-one and a half years, a battle against two political administrations and lengthy legal proceedings to win a case against the government,over lands purchased at West Farm by Mr. James, which were wrongfully deprived from him by the government without any form of compensation. Now the government has to compensate him in excess of E.C. $6.9 million. The Court of Appeal decision between Loris James and the Attorney General of Saint Christopher and Nevis, in which Mr. James won, was handed down on October 6, 2008. The matter was heard in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court on January 15, 2008 before His Lordship, the Hon. Sir Brian Alleyne, SC, Chief Justice (Ag); His Lordship, the Hon. Mr. Dennis Barrow, SC, Justice of Appeal; and His Lordship, the Hon. Mr. Anthony E. Gonsalves for the Appellant and Mr. Arudranauth Gossai for the Respondent.” “When a government intends to use the Acquisition Statute to acquire property, it must pay market price based on what a willing seller and a willing buyer will accept in an open market, and that can only be determined by comparative value,” Mr. James said. “No elected official should ever be allowed to abuse the use of Parliamentary power without impunity,” he said. “The Constitution is Supreme, though the Parliament may be Sovereign,” he added.”””” Mr. James entered into a purchasing agreement with the Wigley family and the Davis family to acquire lands at West Farm, Camps and Johnsons Estates. The Wigley family and the Davis family were the registered proprietors. Mr. James, having already paid close to US$100,000 for 441 acres of developable lands at West Farm from the registered proprietors and who was entitled to a portion of the land, did not get the certificate of title to the land. The Simmonds Administration in 1987 stepped in and obstructed Mr. James in laying claim to the land that he had paid for, quashed the purchasing agreement and the title of the registered proprietors. Mr. James said that Dr. Kennedy Simmonds, who was Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis at the time, told him bluntly that he was not going to allow him to purchase those lands for development when he had the money to purchase them himself. Subsequently, the Simmonds Administration acquired the 441 acres of prime developable lands for a “public purpose” on June 13, 1987. The bone of contention was whether the government should pay a price based on the agricultural use of the lands as it was prescribed in the Amended Law, or was it to pay the open market price based on whatever use was best and available and what a willing seller and a willing buyer would have accepted for the lands at the time of the acquisition. Mr. James” claim was E.C. $6.9 million as of June 1987, plus interest. The Government’s offer was for somewhere around E.C. $200,000 at that time, based on a pro rata share of a Global Sugar Land purchase price. The court has now ruled some 21 years later that the price should be the market price based on a willing seller and a willing buyer basis, not an agricultural price. The Court of Appeal struck down the 1969 Amendments made to the original Land Acquisition Act that prescribe the agricultural basis as the rule for payment. These amendments are now null and void.” The Simmonds Administration up until it left office in 1995 held no negotiations with Mr. James for adequate compensation of the lands, despite requests for mediation, Mr. James said. Before the Simmonds Administration left office, somewhere in or about 1991, the Certificate of Title to the West Farm, Camps and Johnsons Lands, which was still recorded in the names of the former owners, was cancelled and a new Certificate of Title was taken out in favor of the Crown without any payment for the lands, Mr. James said. “None of the lands were alienated, however, during the Simmonds Administration,” Mr. James said. Mr. James said that the Labor Party at that time, who was in opposition, waged a campaign that they would return the lands to the owners when it was elected to office, but they failed to deliver on their promise. “Shortly after the Douglas Administration took office, commencing in or about 1996, it begun to alienate some of these lands to local persons and to foreigners. About 15 percent of these lands have been sold off or leased,” Mr. James said. Ross University was sold some of the lands to build a dormitory for its students, and approximately 20 acres was given on a 75 year lease, Mr. James said. Dr. Ross was sold another large area also approximately 20 acres to build a nursing school, Mr. James said. Mr. James said that the lands were sold to Dr. Ross for E.C. $3.00 per square foot and to affordable home owners a little more than $3.00 per square foot but now the price has gone up to E.C. $6.50 per square foot. “The Government should have collected to date more than E.C. $10 million for the sales but there was no trust account for the proceeds to be kept for the payment of compensation. The money apparently has gone into the general treasury,” Mr. James said. Mr. James said that in 1999, the Douglas Administration appointed a Board of Assessment to assess and award compensation for the taking of the lands and that a claim was made for E.C. $6.9 million, plus interest by him to the Board as the ‘suitability” market price. However, the Government offered a price around E.C. $500,000 as an “agricultural” “global” value and later modified it up to E.C. $2.7 million, plus interest according to the rule in the Amended Statute calling for the compensation to be paid according to the agricultural value. Mr. James pointed out that he and his lawyer, Anthony Gonsalves, offered a legal opinion to the Board of Assessment that the compensation must be based on the market price and not the agricultural base value. It was rejected by the Board and the matter had to be taken to court with consent of the Government, to decide what the compensation should be, Mr. James said. According to Mr. James the value of the lands as it is being currently sold should be around E.C. $125,000,000 at $6.50 per square feet. Having won in the Court of Appeal, Mr. James said that he has worked out a compromise solution with the Attorney General that would not require the government to pay more than 10 percent of the current value but will allow the government and himself to cooperate in developing the lands for a modified public purpose to give everyone, in a fair and open manner, an opportunity to buy lands in the area and to participate in the development of a new Town center, as well as to generate a new stream of revenue to pay down the debt that the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC) had incurred at the National Bank. “Granted that this solution is executed as the AG and I agreed upon, we should see a new history in St. Kitts with acquisitions and the Court of Appeal decision, which I shall refer to as the “Loris James Decision”, is now the law of the land enshrined in the Constitution,” Mr. James said.
