The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A fresh bid to quiet the title to two Exuma cays, valued at a collective $29m, was yesterday branded “a mockery of justice” by the family estate which defeated the previous attempt in the Supreme Court.

Ambrose Nixon, one of the executors for the late King Richard Nixon’s estate, told Tribune Business that the current effort by Samuel Burrows and his attorney, Andrew Allen, to obtain a certificate of title to Lumber Cay and Jim Cay in the Exumas is “a waste of the court’s time” given the previous reversal the duo suffered at the Chief Justice’s hands.

Speaking after the late King Nixon’s estate yesterday took out newspaper advertisements, warning persons not to deal with Mr Burrows, Mr Allen and others in relation to the estate’s property, he urged the Bahamas Bar Association and justice system to “put its foot down” and stop such Quieting Titles actions from happening.

Pointing to the time and money spent by King Nixon’s estate in dealing with rival land ownership claims, Ambrose Nixon told this newspaper that the estate will now file an adverse claim in response to Mr Burrows’ action and seek to have the matter struck out.

“Honestly and truly, they are wasting the court’s time,” Ambrose Nixon said of the latest Quieting Titles petition. “We are going to strike it out and apply for an adverse claim. It’s making a mockery of the justice system. We have to stop allowing things like this to happen in this country.

“Honestly and truly, I feel the courts allow things to happen because there are processes we have to go through. We are very concerned but the reality is they are wasting the court’s time. The truth is the truth. The case went on for a year-and-a-half, the judge took his time, it was a process going back and forth before the court recounting what had happened before.”

There is nothing to suggest Mr Burrows or Mr Allen have done anything wrong in launching a fresh bid to obtain a title certificate to Lumber Cay and Jim Cay. Both Mr Allen, son of late finance minister, Sir William Allen, and Mr Burrows, were among those who featured in Sir Ian Winder’s September 12, 2022, verdict where he set aside a previous Certificate of Title to both islands on the basis that it had been obtained via fraud and abuse of the Quieting Titles Act.

The certificate had been obtained by the same Mr Burrows in partnership with Gardie Nixon, with both men represented by Mr Allen. But, slamming the “falsehoods” and “deliberate concealment” employed by the duo to obtain title to the islands, which was granted by the Supreme Court via a different case on July 18, 2017, the Chief Justice said the fraud meant the later sale of both islands to companies owned by a Virginia-based developer, David Tilton, was “null and void”.

His verdict detailed allegations that the two islands were sold to Mr Tilton for a combined $1.8m - a sum equivalent to just 6.2 percent of their combined appraised value. Lumber Cay, in particular, was said to have been appraised at $20m alone, and offers a prime real estate/tourism development opportunity as a 30-acre parcel located just 700 feet south of Staniel Cay, the renowned boating and second home destination.

Mr Allen was also described in the judgment as acting for Mr Tilton and his companies. He was said to have been a president, director and shareholder of Archipelago Development & Resorts III and Jim Cay Company, with Mr Tilton funding the quieting action, but Mr Allen subsequently vehemently denied that there was any land fraud or that he played a role in any such conspiracy, adding that the Chief Justice’s verdict got it “very, very wrong”.

He last week told Tribune Business that the latest Quieting Titles petition by Mr Burrows, with Gardie Nixon no longer involved, will expose “the actual story” concerning both cays. Jim Cay is an eight-acre island situated north of Lansing Cay, between Musher and Hog Cay, and Mr Allen said the new action is “based on a completely new set of circumstances” to what was before Sir Ian.

Asserting that there are no plans to ‘flip’, or sell, either cay to Mr Tilton or anyone else should his client be successful, he added that Mr Burrows’ claim is based on a possessory title - meaning that he actually lived on, or worked on, both cays for an extended period of time - “without those documents tying us to” the estate of the late King Richard Nixon, whose other children including Ambrose Nixon successfully overturned the previous title certificate in the case before Sir Ian.

Sir Ian, in his verdict, found that Mr Burrows “misled the court” by failing to disclose that he was placed on Lumber Cay by Wayde Nixon, a member of the Nixon family, to be a caretaker. And one witness testified in the trial that he had been promised a boat and a house “if he testified that Samuel lived on Lumber Cay for the last 20 years”.

However, Mr Allen yesterday said: “We’re going to present the true story. We have the opportunity to present the actual story. This is Samuel’s possession, and if something was taken fraudulently from King Nixon, then prove it. Prove he owned it and it was taken from him. We’re saying King Nixon’s estate never owned the property.”

Mr Burrows is the late King Nixon’s brother-in-law and uncle to all his children, many of whom successfully opposed him in the original Quieting Titles action. Ambrose Nixon yesterday said he still has faith in the judicial system, and that the estate has resources to continue the fight, but questioned what happens to Bahamians faced with similar challenges who lack the financial resources and means for a legal battle.

“It’s an abuse of the justice system for them to continue to do this,” he blasted. “A lot of people are going through this. It’s sad to know they don’t have the money to go back into the court system and fight these cases. The lawyers know that and use that to their advantage.

“The justice system is still just. It’s a process you have to go through, but it has to come to an end at some point. I feel honestly and truly that the system needs to be more open, and that the Bar Association needs to pull up its socks and deal with those attorneys that take advantage of the system and take advantage of people who don’t have the ability to fight them. I just pray that once the justice system is doing their job we’ll have a better answer for every situation.”

Mr Allen, though, pointed out that Sir Ian’s ruling did not give or confirm that King Nixon’s estate has title to, and is the true owner, of both cays. He added: “What it does reflect is that the Chief Justice did not give the cays to them. He restored the status quo and left the cays in exactly the same condition as before, which made us feel we were entitled to quiet them again.”