Parcel 869 – it is that prime piece of land with 300 feet of
river frontage next to the San Cas Plaza. For 5 years it has been at the center
of a fierce courtroom battle between Santiago Castillo Limited and the Quinto
family. It is prime real estate, but Santino Castillo bought it from one Ann
Williams in 2004 for just $130,000.
But it turns out that Ann Williams doesn’t own the land, the
Quinto family did. And so when Castillo began construction in 2005 – the
Quintos went to the Supreme Court which first blocked Santino from construction
and then in February 2007 cancelled Castillo’s title for parcel 869. Castillo
appealed and in October of 2007 the Court of Appeal overturned Chief Justice
Abdulai Conteh’s ruling. But the Quintos weren’t content to leave
it there, and that’s how it ended up at the Privy Council.
The news tonight is that in late April, the Privy Council ruled decisively
against Santino Castillo. Not only does he have to give up the land but he also
will have to pay considerable damages. Quinto’s attorney Fred Lumour was
at the Privy Council with Queen’s Council James Guthrie and he told us
about the implications of the ruling.
Fred Lumour, Attorney for Quintos
“The case was argued on the 2nd and 3rd of February this year and
on the 28th of April 2009 the Privy Council overturned the judgement of the
Court of Appeal and restored the judgement of the Chief Justice. So the title 
of Santiago Castillo in respect of this property will be cancelled by the Registrar
of Lands.”
Keith Swift,
What does this mean, what happens next?
Fred Lumour,
“What happens next is that we will remove Santiago Castillo Ltd. from
the land and then we will go back to court for the court to assess damages against
the company for the period that they have been in occupation of the land.”
Keith Swift,
When you say damages, damages for what?
Fred Lumour,
“The damage is that since 2004 they have been using the Quinto family
land for parking of vehicles and trailors and basically it became almost as
an annex to the San Cas Plaza and since they are on the land unlawfully, by
law they ought to pay damages for the occupation of the land.”
Keith Swift,
Why was it important to take this all the way to the Privy Council?
Fred Lumour,
“The land is valued by the late Jim Hyde of over $1 million. By now
we believe that land is the value of it is reaching $1.5 million to $2 million
Belize dollars.”
Keith Swift,
Do you anticipate that Mr. Castillo will voluntarily move off the land?
Fred Lumour,
“I believe he will do so. He has lawyers and I believe that his lawyers
would advise him to move the things off the land and give vacant position of
the land to the Quintos.”
Castillo will have to also pay court costs which are estimated to be
at least a quarter of a million dollars. Lumour will now apply to the Supreme
Court to enforce the judgement – and in some not so nice words –
evict Castillo. And along with restoring ownership of parcel 869 to William
and Jimmy Quinto, Lumour says the ruling has set an important legal precedent.
Fred Lumour,
“The advice that the Privy Council has given to the judgement is that
by law, once a area is declared to be a registered area, the Registrar of Lands
has a duty under law to transfer all existing titles into the Land Register.
But the Registrar of Lands say they don’t have the resources and the personnel
to do it so that practice has developed that the owner of the land has to go
through that process of transferring his former title into the land certificate
and the Privy Council is telling the government that this process will cause
injustice to so many people and that the government needs to find the resources
for the land registry to transfer titles instead of asking people to apply and
register their individual titles in the land register.”
Keith Swift,
So this has set a precedent?
Fred Lumour,
“This has set a precedent and we are quite relieved that we finally
obtained justice for the Quintos.”
There are more than a few loose ends in this story. First there is
the issue of Ann Williams. No one knows how she got a title for parcel 869 when
she originally had one for parcel 818. It is possible that Castillo will sue
her for the return of the $130,000 he paid her for the parcel. Despite making
multiple attempts on two successive days, we were unable to reach Castillo for
comment. An interesting note is that prior to purchasing parcel 869 from Ann
Williams, Castillo and the Quintos had discussed purchasing the property.
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