A 14-year-old abolished legal concept finds its way back to influence court rulings regarding a multi-million dollar land dispute in Newton.
Just before 1994, a legal concept known as “adverse possession”, a party who used the land for 12 years without asking permission from the owner could lay ownership of the land.
However, when the Land Titles Act was enacted in 1994, stating that such claim was invalid unless the land was occupied for straight 12 years before then.
The said dispute centres on a 234 square metres strip of lands located at Buckley Mansions. The land is approximately $2 million.
The City Developments Ltd (CDL) acquired the ownership of Buckley Mansions in September 1999 and now, they wanted to develop the land and the estate. However, it learned that the land was not actually part of the property they bought.
On their initial verification, it showed that late Mr. Syed Allowee Ally Aljunied was the last known legal owner of the land but a commissioned study showed that four people had claim the property.
CDL then soght the High Court to declare them as land owner and advertised to press that any claimants must come forward.
Two people, housewife Sharifah Fatimah Aljunied and Harun Aljunied and housewife declared the ownership of the land, claiming they were trustees of the land that belonged to late Mr. Syed Allowee. Another person, Mr. Syed Noah Aljunied, the great-grandson of Mr. Syed Allowee, also claimed ownership of the property.
However, CDL’s lawyers, Rajaram Muralli Rajan and Kenneth Pereira, argued that CDL could still be benefited from adverse possession. They also argued that CDL bought the property from Kerr Leong Heng, a private firm who developed the site and fenced it as private estate for over 12 years before the changes in law was made in 1994.
The lawyer also stated that claimants failed to have either links to the estate or have direct relationship to Mr. Syed Allowee. They said that the land in Newton belonged to Aljunied family since the 1900s.
Lee Jit Seam, Buckley Mansions’ long-standing neighbour also testified that fence had enclosed the land since 1971, as it was part of a private property.
Justice Tay Yong Kwang, the presiding judge over the case, said that claimants never came forward to claim the property until recent days.
The judge also said that any claim of ownership doesn’t matter as DCL acquired the land rights as a result of adverse possession.
In an interview, lawyers said that arguments regarding adverse possession were not bought to such dispute for a long time since it was abolished 14 years ago.