- William Phillips, 75, occupied the land since 1985
- A court ordered him to vacate by a set deadline
- The title holder gave inconsistent account of his purchase
- Phillips says he was never consulted during proceedings
William Phillips, 75, has occupied a property in New Town, Black River, St Elizabeth, since 1985, after his uncle, Artie Phillips, told him to take over land the family considered its own, passed down from his granduncle Albert George Burton. A court has ordered him to vacate by a set deadline, handing the property to Harold Jones, who holds a registered title. I’m not a squatter, Phillips told the Gleaner. This a family land, and it was given to one of the family.
Phillips says he was largely excluded from the court process that produced the eviction order. Nobody didn’t ask me nothing, he said, adding that he believes the court system failed him. His wife, Nyral Phillips, 40, said the couple, married in 2023 with two children aged seven and nine, have nowhere to go before the deadline, which lands just ahead of the new school term. The couple say they had never seen Jones on the property before the dispute arose.
Jones’s own account of how he acquired the land has been inconsistent under questioning. He told the Gleaner he purchased the property in 1992 from Mary Martin through a solicitor, Donald Smith, both of whom have since died, but became reluctant when pressed for further detail and ended the conversation, later failing to respond to follow-up calls. A sworn affidavit filed in the court proceedings states that Martin was executor of the estate of Vera Burton and sold Jones the property in that capacity, a chain of ownership Phillips’s family disputes.
The case sits inside a pattern this publication has covered repeatedly: Jamaica’s title system treats a registered certificate as conclusive, while adverse possession law separately allows long-term, open, continuous occupation to support a competing claim, under conditions courts, not occupants, ultimately determine. Unable to reach his member of parliament, Phillips said he intends to travel to Kingston to appeal directly to Justice Minister Delroy Chuck. I want Mr Chuck to get in this, he said, because this is not justice.
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