A Farmer Claimed Church Land Since 1972. The Court Said the Church’s Paperwork Won

• A Paramin farmer was ordered off land belonging to a Catholic church
• He said his family had occupied it since 1972
• The judge found he had not proved 16 years of exclusive possession
• The church’s records of its rights from 1995 proved decisive

A long fight over a hillside plot in Paramin ended in November 2024 with a win for the Roman Catholic Church. Trinidad and Tobago Newsday reported that Justice Frank Seepersad ordered farmer Jude St Hilaire to leave land belonging to Our Lady of Guadalupe RC Church on Saut D’Eau Road, Paramin, Maraval, by February 28, 2025, and to pay $14,000 in costs.

The Archbishop of Port of Spain had sued in 2023, represented by Senior Counsel Gregory Delzin. St Hilaire, whose attorney was Dave McKenzie, argued that his family had occupied the land since 1972. He ran a fruit stall there and had begun putting up a concrete building.

To take land by adverse possession, a claimant must show exclusive, continuous possession for 16 years. Justice Seepersad found St Hilaire had not done so. The church’s documents showed that from 1995 it had exercised its “assertive rights” over the property, which undercut his claim to exclusive control. The evidence also described a confrontation with surveyor Rishi Mohan Mahabir: “The verbal berating continued by the defendant and he attempted to chase Mr Mahabir and his employees from the location.”

Before the ruling, McKenzie had written to Pope Francis describing his client as a “good and faithful” Roman Catholic and “simple poor farmer” caught up in “a David-versus-Goliath type scenario,” and accusing the church of using its “fiscal and political might and power.” The appeal did not change the outcome in court.

The case shows how a squatter’s claim to church land is decided in practice: not by who has been on the land longest in popular memory, but by who can prove what, and when.

Jamaican law on adverse possession works along similar lines, and many churches here own land that neighbours farm or build on. The Paramin judgment gives Jamaican church boards a clear lesson: survey their land, keep records of every act of ownership such as inspections, fencing, leases and letters, and deal with encroachments early. A church that can document its control over the years is far harder to dislodge.

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