Fitzroy Duncun v Rhonda Francis

• Jurisdiction: Grenada
• Court: High Court (Grenada)
• Judge: Glasgow, J.
• Judgment Date: 03 October 2025
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2025] ECSC J1003-1
• Docket Number: CLAIM NO. GDAHCV2024/0073 (ELP) (FORMERLY CLAIM NO. GDAHCV2020/0043)

Between:

Fitzroy Duncan

Claimant

and

Rhonda Francis

Defendant

[2025] ECSC J1003-1

Before:

The Hon. Justice Raulston L A. Glasgow High Court Judge

CLAIM NO. GDAHCV2024/0073 (ELP) (FORMERLY CLAIM NO. GDAHCV2020/0043)

IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SUPREME COURT

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

(CIVIL)

Appearances:

Winnifred Duncan — Phillip of counsel for the claimant

Sephorah Khan of counsel for the defendant

Glasgow, J.

1 The saga in this case is a tale that is reflective of the unhappy state of the land tenure system in Grenada. The facts are unfortunate but not uncommon in Grenada.

THE FACTS

2 The claimant (“Mr. Duncan”) asserts his right to possession of a parcel of land situated at Soubise, St. Andrew. The parcel of land measures 11,589 square feet (“the land”). Mr. Duncan claims that his possession of the land is evidenced by a statutory declaration filed on 23 ^rd January 2008 and filed in the Deeds and Land Registry in Liber 5–2008 at page 205 (“the Duncan Statutory Declaration”).

3 The defendant (“Ms. Francis”) resides on a portion of the land (“the disputed land”). She lives in a wooden house on that portion. The disputed land occupied by Ms. Francis measures 4000 square feet. Mr. Duncan claims that Ms. Francis trespassed on his land. He requests orders for possession of the disputed land and for Ms. Francis to stop performing acts of construction on the wooden building in which she resides. Ms. Francis denies the allegation of trespass and claims that Mr. Duncan is not entitled to possession of the disputed land since she is residing there lawfully. Mr. Duncan denies that Ms. Francis is living there lawfully. In fact, he asserts that she resides in the wooden house pursuant to a licence which he gave to his brother Aaron Duncan, which licence has since been terminated. The story of how Ms. Francis came to occupy 4000 square of the land claimed by Mr. Duncan is therefore relevant.

How did Ms. Francis come to occupy the land in question?

4 Unsurprisingly, there are 2 opposing versions of the story surrounding Ms. Francis' occupation of the disputed land.

Mr. Duncan's account

5 For Mr. Duncan, his version of the saga is that his uncle, Bertie Munro owned or possessed the land. I must pause here to point out that Ms. Francis also accepts that Bertie Munro owned or possessed the land. This concession is relevant for the later disposition of this claim. Mr. Duncan explains that he grew up on the lot of land next to his Uncle Bertie Munro's land. He shared a very close relationship with his uncle who promised to leave the 11,589 square feet of land for him. When Uncle Bertie Munro died in 1990, he left the property in his will for Mr. Duncan. This will was never admitted to probate. In 1998, Mr. Duncan deposited the will with his attorney – at – law, but before counsel could apply for a grant of probate, the will was lost due to the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Mr. Duncan did not receive another copy of the will until the year 2024, when he obtained a copy from a family friend.

6 In the meantime though, Mr. Duncan moved ahead with the use and occupation of the land. In 1993, he built a house on the same spot that his Uncle Bertie Munro had his house. He lived in that house until he migrated to the United States of America (“USA”) in 1998. Mr. Duncan also cultivated the land with cabbage, cucumbers, corn, lettuce and plantains. When he migrated to the USA, he asked his sister Patrice Duncan Thomas to reside in his house. She still lives there. In 2008 he commissioned a survey of the land and caused the Duncan Statutory Declaration to be registered at the Deeds and Lands Registry of Grenada indicating that he had occupied the land for over 18 years from the time of his uncle's death in 1990. He pays taxes for the land.

7 Mr. Duncan's story continues. Before Bertie Munro died, he was renting the disputed land to his friend Ignatius Benjamin (“Mr. Benjamin”). Mr. Benjamin built a wooden house on the disputed land. However, at some point Mr. Benjamin and Bertie Munro had a falling out. Bertie Munro asked Mr. Benjamin to leave his land and he did so. Mr. Benjamin moved to somewhere in the St. George's area but he left his wooden house on the disputed land. Mr. Benjamin left someone to live in the wooden house for a short while but thereafter he sold the wooden house to Mr. Duncan's brother, Aaron Duncan. As recited above, Mr. Duncan took possession of the land when Bertie Munro died but he allowed Aaron Duncan to remain in the wooden house that Aaron Duncan had purchased from Mr. Benjamin.

8 After Aaron Duncan bought the wooden house from Mr. Benjamin, he lived in it and started doing repairs to the same. It must be noted that the wooden house that Aaron Duncan purchased is very close to Mr. Duncan's house. Aaron Duncan's girlfriend, Christine Francis (“Ms. Francis' mother”) also lived close to the land. She lived with her 3 children (including Ms. Francis) in a house belonging to Christine Francis' father on land that was in boundary with the land. Christine Francis and her children moved between her father's house and the wooden house purchased by Aaron Duncan. About one year after Aaron Duncan purchased the wooden house, Christine Francis and her 3 children moved into the wooden house with him.

9 At some point in 1993, Aaron Duncan migrated to the USA. He left Christine Francis and her children residing in the wooden house. Christine Francis never questioned Mr. Duncan's ownership of the disputed land since “he and Christine got on like family”. In 2013, Christine Francis also migrated to the USA leaving her daughter, Ms. Francis, living in the wooden house with her family.

10 In 2008, when Mr. Duncan visited Grenada, he saw a fence being erected in the space between his house (occupied by his sister Patrice Duncan Thomas) and the wooden house owned by his brother Aaron Duncan but now occupied by Ms. Francis and her family. Mr. Duncan removed the fence since he had not authorised its construction. His sister, Patrice Duncan Thomas, later advised him that one Allister Charles (“Mr. Charles”), Mr. Benjamin's brother and the father of Ms. Francis, was claiming ownership of the disputed land and that Mr. Charles had filed a claim in the magistrate's court seeking an order of possession of the disputed land from Christine Francis. Mr. Charles was claiming that he was the owner of the disputed land and that he rented the same to Christine Francis. Mr. Duncan and his sister assisted Christine Francis with that claim in the magistrate's court. That claim was heard and dismissed by the magistrate.

11 A few years after the magistrate's court claim brought by Mr. Charles was dismissed, Mr. Duncan took notice of a statutory declaration registered by Mr. Charles in 2011 (“the Charles Statutory Declaration”). The Charles Statutory Declaration declared that Mr. Charles purchased the disputed land from Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Duncan disputes this assertion. Mr. Duncan claims that there is no evidence that Bertie Munro sold the land to Mr. Benjamin and as such Mr. Benjamin did not own the land to sell to Mr. Benjamin's brother, Mr. Charles.

12 In 2017, Mr. Duncan was informed by his sister Patrice Duncan Thomas that Ms. Francis was in the process of converting part of the wooden house owned by his brother, Aaron Duncan, into a concrete structure. Several lawyers' letters were sent by Mr. Duncan to Ms. Francis up until 2020 when Mr. Duncan obtained an injunction to stop Ms. Francis from further construction.

Ms. Francis' version

13 Ms. Francis does not dispute much of Mr. Duncan's version as to how her mother, Christine Francis, she Ms. Francis, and her family came to reside on the disputed land. Ms. Francis also does not dispute that Bertie Munro was the original owner or possessed the land including the disputed land. Ms. Francis, however claims that her father, Mr. Charles told her that Bertie Munro sold the disputed land to Mr. Benjamin who then sold the same to her father, Mr. Charles. Mr. Benjamin also commissioned a survey of the disputed land in the year 1983.

14 Ms. Francis presented a receipt for sale of the disputed land given to her by her father, Mr. Charles. Ms. Francis contends that the receipt reflects a purported sale of the disputed land by Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Charles on 23 ^rd September 1998 for the sum of $3000.00. Ms. Francis pleads that her father, Mr. Charles told her that he never obtained a deed for the sale of the disputed land because Mr. Benjamin, who was a fisherman, went out to sea during the year 1989 and has never been seen or heard from since that time. Her father, Mr. Charles therefore had the Charles Statutory Declaration prepared by Zephrine and Deslyn Fletcher and filed in the Deeds and Land Registry of Grenada in Liber 32–2011 at page 237 indicating that he is the owner of the disputed land.

15 Ms. Francis pleads that her father told her that Mr. Benjamin sold the wooden house to Aaron Duncan and her mother Christine Francis. She disputes the claim that it was Mr. Duncan who gave Aaron Duncan permission to remain on the disputed land. Her position is that her father, Mr. Charles, told her that Mr. Benjamin permitted Aaron Duncan to leave the wooden house on the disputed land.

16 Ms. Francis also disputes the contention that she or her mother ever sought permission from Mr. Duncan or anyone on his behalf to remain on the disputed land or to build up the wooden house located on it. This is since, Ms. Francis asserts, she always treated the disputed land as belonging to her father, Mr. Charles. Ms. Francis then explains her efforts to commence construction and the various interventions by Mr. Duncan in an effort to stop construction. She reiterates that at no point did she or anyone on her behalf acknowledge Mr. Duncan's claim to ownership of the disputed land. Ms. Francis also maintains that her mother was living on...