Privy Council ruled that the Keith Mitchell-led government was wrong to lease lands not owned by the state but by private citizens to the Marina Developers in Carriacou

The owners of private lands which now form part of the controversial Tyrrel Bay Marina in Harvey Vale, Carriacou want the private developers off their lands in keeping with the ownership ruling given a few years ago by the Privy Council in London, England.

A spokesman for the Corion family told THE NEW TODAY that the developers who were “illegally” given the lands under some kind of a lease agreement signed by the former New National Party (NNP) government of Keith Mitchell are not acting in good faith and want these people to comply and allow the lands to return to its rightful owners.

The disputed 7 acres of lands has now attracted international attention after the Corion’s erected a fence on the property which has resulted in some boat owners especially from North America not being able to take out their vessels from the marina.

The case was first started on behalf of the Corion family by former Attorney-General Rohan Philip who is now a high court judge in the OECS and was then taken up by attorney-at-law Nazim Burke, a former Grenada Minister of Finance.

The NNP regime signed the lease for the lands when the late Foreign Minister Elvin Nimrod was the elected Member of Parliament for Carriacou & Petite Martinique and attorney-at-law Cajeton Hood was serving as the island’s Attorney-General and principal advisor to the government.

The lease of the land was granted to a company known as Carriacou Devcor Ltd in which a Trinidad multi-millionaire has been identified as one of the major financiers of the marina project.

According to the family spokesman, the Marina Developers never sought to engage the owners of the land on the matter despite the ruling from the Privy Council on ownership.

He also expressed concern with the lawmakers in Grenada passing laws in Parliament that will allow “trespassers” to continue to illegally occupy people’s property.

“I cannot understand how the law of Grenada can say that somebody that’s trespassing on somebody else’s land has more rights or these people could still occupy somebody else’s land even though the highest court in the land (Privy Council) has ruled.”

“It is the most asinine thing to be honest with you from just a lay person’s viewpoint and as a business person – you’re trespassing on my lands and I still have to go to court to get you off my land – it is crazy and you are making money off of my land.”

“I didn’t ask you to be there, I didn’t put you there, I didn’t enter into a Contract with you but yet you do not want to get off of my land.”

The family spokesman pointed out that the situation is absurd in light of the fact that the then NNP government of Grenada which acted illegally in the first instance has “virtually told everyone that we concede it is not our land it’s the Corion’s land” even before the Privy Council in London.

He accused the Marina developers of “dragging and dragging” their feet on the issue, as well as “trying to acquire” the lands somehow instead of removing themselves from the property.

He said that even before the Marina Developers started substantial work on their project, the family had told them to remove themselves from the lands as it was private lands and did not belong to the State.

“And they knew that … there was no question whose lands it was but I think people did not care,” he added.

Asked what is the current status of the situation, the family official said: “We are saying that you need to get off of my land – that’s really what it boils down to. They don’t want to leave – the court has ruled that you are basically trespassers and you still don’t want to leave.”

At least one local newspaper has called on the Dickon Mitchell-led Congress government to intercede in the ongoing dispute between the Corion Family and the Marina Developers and bring both parties around the table to resolve the issue as it is giving Grenada a bad image internationally.

NB: See Page 7 for the ruling of Justice Actie in which she dismissed the Injunction Motion brought by the Marina Developers against the Corion Family.

This ruling makes mention of the Privy Council Judgement in which it was clearly stated that the Developers were occupying seven acres of land that belonged to the Corion Family.