Lawyer wins property appeal
THE local appellate court yesterday gave attorney Delroy Salmon the right to recover a 10-room guest house he sold to an American Canadian in the late 1980s.
It was the second victory for Salmon, who had sued and won Lilia Neuman in 2000, to recover the property on the basis that she had not kept her end of the sales contract.
Neuman, who had contended that she had an equitable ownership right to remain on the property, argued at the time that Salmon could not use the contract as a basis to oust her, as he had not obeyed the Exchange Control Act.
Under the Act, which was repealed in 1992, Salmon was obliged to get the Government’s permission to perform the contract. But he didn’t. So Neuman’s attorney, Brenda Warren, argued that it was unenforceable.
According to the contract, dated December 18, 1987, the property, located in the ritzy community of Coral Gardens in St James, was to be sold for $2,000,000. It required Neuman to make an initial deposit of $200,000 on that date, another $200,000 two months later, and the balance under a mortgage to be drafted by Salmon.
However, Supreme Court judge Hazle Harris, who heard the case, disagreed, gave Salmon the right to recover the property and ordered Neuman to pay Salmon mesne profits of $2,635,554.62 with interest.
However, justices Ransford Langrin and Seymour Panton ruled that Salmon had the right to recover the property because he held the legal title. A dissenting Justice Henderson Downer argued differently, however.
“Once he put her in possession as a purchaser, then by the process of law she became an equitable owner and he (became) the trustee who held the legal title,” he said.