Posted by C. Wells on August 11, 2001 at 12:00:35:
I have four cousins, Bahamian citizens, who own a building in Nassau, Bahamas. This building has been in their family for about 40 years. In 1999 their mother died and left her two oldest children as trustees of the estate. They have had nothing but trouble since. There was a tenant in the building who hadn’t paid rent in almost a year. When my cousins took over, the man refused to pay his rent, attacked one of the girls with a cutlass and violated numerous other conditions of his lease. My cousins took him to court and after numerous delays and legal shenanigans by the tenant, they had him evicted.
Even though he was evicted and forbidden to set foot on the property, he came with a gang one evening, and after intimidating and threatening to assault the security guards hired to protect the building, he forced his way back in. Because of the dysfunctional nature of the Bahamian courts the sisters had to take him back to court. Again, after numerous delays and more unethical abuse of the legal system by the rogue tenant, he was evicted again. He was out of the building for over three months and my cousins moved on with their lives, trying to sell the property. Then one night the former tenant broke into the building and was caught red-handed inside the building with three other men, one of whom was an off-duty police officer friend of his. The police who arrived on the scene were friends of the off-duty cop so they didn’t arrest him. In fact they threatened to arrests my cousin for insisting that the intruders be arrested for breaking and entering.
The next day my cousins were presented with papers stating that the rogue tenant was appealing the eviction. The legal window for an appeal had expired and the man was not even required to post the necessary appeal bond. He had also managed to obtain a court injunction prohibiting my cousins from doing anything to thwart his moving back into the building. This injunction was signed ex parte’, which means that it was argued privately, in front of one judge, and my cousins were not even notified of the court appearance, let alone allowed to protest the obvious injustice of the injunction. The injunction was also presented to the judge without full and frank disclosure on the part of the presenting attorney, whose unscrupulous method of presenting the motion was reason enough to have had it dismissed. This injunction was a direct, blatant violation of my cousins’ civil rights and rights as a Bahamian property owner.
My cousins requested an opportunity in court to oppose the injunction. The judge who signed the injunction was outraged that he had been lied to by the unscrupulous attorney representing the tenant. The judge said he was tricked into signing an injunction with incorrect and insufficient information. Because he was too upset and didn’t want to make a “snap decision,” he adjourned the case for several days saying he would make his judgement at that time. Yet, two days later, he did not overturn the injunction and wouldn’t even make eye contact with my cousins as he quietly delivered the news that he was not going to overturn it. It was later confirmed that he had indeed been “compromised.” Ten months later the rogue tenant is still in the building, not paying a bit of rent and his unscrupulous lawyer has ensured that the case has “disappeared” in the chaotic legal system of the Bahamas. At this time there is still no appeal date in sight. My cousins cannot sell the property, cannot rent the property and cannot get their due rent from this rogue tenant. This has cost my cousins over $100,000.
This is just one small stomach churning twist in a roller-coaster of injustice and lawlessness. My poor cousins have been in and out of court on a continual basis, causing tremendous loss of productivity in their work. They have written letters to the newspapers, spoken to numerous lawyers, judges, the Bar Association, the Attorney General, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and even the Prime Minister’s office. Yet no one has even taken the time to investigate the incredibly unjust situation. My cousins have been told by three different prominent attorneys that “justice doesn’t exist in the Bahamas.” I believe those attorneys are correct and it will be the straw that breaks the back of the Bahamian society and economy.