Caselaw Digest
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Francis Chitolie and another v Saint Lucia National Housing Corporation (Saint Lucia)

5 December 2023
[2023] UKPC 43
Privy Council
Saint Lucia's land registry system requires you to claim your land within a specific timeframe. If you don't, even if you've lived there for years, you lose your claim, and someone else can claim it instead. This case confirms that this applies even if you were already in the process of owning the land through years of living there.

Key Facts

  • Saint Lucia introduced a Torrens land registration system in 1984 via the Land Adjudication Act (LAA) and the Land Registration Act (LRA).
  • Appellants claimed prescriptive title to land based on over 30 years' possession, beginning before the Torrens system.
  • The disputed land was first registered under the Torrens system in the name of the National Development Corporation in 1987, with the appellants making no claim during the Land Registration and Titling Project (LRTP).
  • The respondent, Saint Lucia National Housing Corporation (NHC), sued for trespass, and the appellants counterclaimed, asserting their prescriptive title as an overriding interest under the LRA.
  • Lower courts held that the appellants' pre-1987 possession did not count towards the 30-year prescriptive period because they failed to claim the land during the LRTP.

Legal Principles

Under Saint Lucia's Torrens system, registration confers title. Rights acquired by prescription before the system's implementation are not automatically recognized unless a claim was made during the initial registration process.

Land Adjudication Act 1984 & Land Registration Act 1984

Article 2103A of the Saint Lucia Civil Code allows acquisition of immovable property title by 30 years' uninterrupted possession.

Saint Lucia Civil Code, Article 2103A

Overriding interests, including rights in the process of being acquired by prescription, are recognized under the LRA, but only for possession commencing *after* the introduction of the Torrens system unless a claim was made during the LRTP.

Land Registration Act 1984, Section 28(f)

Proprietary rights can only be removed by clear statutory wording (principle of legality).

R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex p Pierson [1998] AC 539; R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex p Simms [2000] 2 AC 115

Outcomes

Appeal dismissed.

The court found that the legislative scheme was clear and comprehensive, requiring claims to be made during the LRTP to protect any interest in land, including those in the process of being acquired by prescription. Failure to make a claim extinguished pre-1987 possessory rights.

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