1 week ago
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The Caribbean Court of Justice has reserved its judgment in a multimillion-dollar land dispute involving 14.76 acres at Cats Caye in the Stann Creek District. The three-hour-and-fifteen-minute hearing centred on whether Rudolph Ramirez and Julius Zabaneh should receive damages reflecting the land’s market value, or only a refund of the original purchase price. Ramirez received Minister’s Fiat Grant Number 304 of 2008 after paying the Government 2,878 dollars and 20 cents for the property. However, the same land had already been conveyed to Paumen’s Pleasure Cove in December 2005, three years before the grant was issued to Ramirez. Ramirez reportedly discovered the duplication in 2014 and sought to have the grant corrected. In September 2019, the Lands and Surveys Department issued a rectification, but it only corrected an entry number. The underlying problem, that the land already belonged to someone else, remained unresolved. The same 14.76 acres were subsequently reissued to Ramirez under Minister’s Fiat Grant Number 157 of 2016, dated September 2019. Ramirez later assigned his purported interest to Julius Zabaneh. Ramirez and Zabaneh sued the Attorney General and Minister of Natural Resources in 2021, seeking specific performance of the land contract or damages representing the property’s market value. The Government initially argued that the claim had been filed outside the legal time limit. That defence was later struck out without objection from the State, and default judgment was entered for Ramirez and Zabaneh in March 2023. During the assessment of damages, the claimants’ expert valued the property at 8.9 million dollars, while the Government’s expert placed its value at just over five million dollars. High Court Justice Patricia Farnese adjusted the Government’s valuation to reflect the estimated value in September 2019 and awarded Ramirez and Zabaneh 2,087,938 dollars and 28 cents in January 2024. Ramirez and Zabaneh appealed, arguing, among other things, that the award was too low. The Government responded with a notice seeking to have the decision varied. In August 2025, the Court of Appeal overturned the multimillion-dollar award. It found that the 2019 grant was void because the property was no longer national land and therefore could not legally be granted by the minister. The court also placed significant weight on the finding that Ramirez already knew about the earlier grant when the land was reissued to him in 2019. The Court of Appeal declared the 2019 grant null and void and ordered the Government to refund Ramirez 2,870 dollars and 20 cents. It also ordered Ramirez and Zabaneh to pay the Government’s legal costs. Ramirez and Zabaneh then took the dispute to the CCJ, seeking to restore the High Court award or otherwise set aside the Court of Appeal’s decision. Former Prime Minister Senior Counsel Dean Barrow appeared for Ramirez and Zabaneh, while Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay represented the Attorney General and Minister of Natural Resources. The arguments addressed whether the Court of Appeal was entitled to reconsider liability after the Government’s defence had been struck out and judgment had already been entered against it. The CCJ was also asked to consider whether damages could legally be awarded under a land transaction that the Court of Appeal found was impossible to perform. Following submissions from both sides, the CCJ panel reserved its judgment. A date for the delivery of the decision will be announced.
English (US) ·