The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has been dealt another blow in its ongoing legal battle with the Port-of-Spain City Corporation over a 23-acre parcel of land at Westmoorings. The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed WASA’s appeal over the decision of a High Court Judge in 2013 to award ownership of the site to the corporation. Appellate Judges Allan Mendonca, Rajendra Narine and Gregory Smith sat on the appeal panel.
The land, sometimes referred to as the Cocorite Farm, is located on the Western Main Road, Westmoorings, opposite The Falls, West Mall. The dispute arose in 2011 when the authority resumed water production at the site, which had been discontinued in the 1980s, while placing signs to re-establish the property boundaries. On September 14 that year, the corporation’s chief executive officer advised WASA that it should cease and desist all activities on the acreage since the property was under the corporation’s stewardship.
WASA maintained its position and the following day the corporation moved onto the site and tore down the signs. WASA workers were allegedly threatened with arrests for trespass, according to the documents presented in court. WASA however, claimed it was the corporation which was trespassing. In her judgment delivered in January 2013, Justice Carol Gobin ruled WASA had failed to present evidence to prove the land was vested to it.
Gobin said the property was in the continuous and undisturbed possession of the corporation since the 1980s and, as such, WASA’s activity on the lands was illegal. Shortly after Gobin’s judgment, former Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing announced that the site would be transformed into a green space which would include benches, a children’s playground and a walking track.
Although the Appeal Court had refused WASA an injunction stopping development on the site until the appeal was determined, it has been left virtually untouched since. “Mayor of Port-of-Spain, Alderman Raymond Tim Kee, has expressed his satisfaction at the successful outcome of this matter,” a press release from the corporation said yesterday. WASA was represented by Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam, attorneys Larry Lalla and Nyree Alfonso, while John Jeremie, SC, and Kerwyn Garcia represented the city corporation