A.A. 'Bobby' Pottinger - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
ST. MARY Custos A.A. 'Bobby' Pottinger on Monday obtained an order from the Court of Appeal, staying a court order for the registrar of titles to remove his name from the register of titles for 34 lots of lands in Gibraltar Heights, St. Mary.
Pottinger applied for a stay of execution until the United Kingdom Privy Council hears his appeal against the Court of Appeal's ruling earlier this year.
In 1992, Pottinger obtained titles to the land by adverse possession because he claimed he had been occupying the land undisturbed since 1975.
Traute Raffone, owner of the land, took the issue to the Supreme Court and lost. She appealed, and the Court of Appeal by a majority decision ruled that Pottinger fraudulently misrepresented to the registrar of titles that he had been in adverse possession of the 34 lots and wrongfully obtained the titles. He was barred from interfering with the lots. The court directed that the registrar of titles remove Pottinger's name from the register and transfer the lots to Raffone.
The court said that within the 12-year period, Pottinger had made attempts to purchase the lots.
Attorney-at-law Ransford Braham made the application yesterday before Justice Paul Harrison, Justice Algernon Smith and Justice Hazel Harris.
Attorney-at-law Carol Davis, who represents Raffone, opposed the application for a stay on the grounds that Pottinger came in possession of the land as a squatter and if he should remain in possession, it would be to the detriment of Raffone. She said Raffone was an elderly and sick woman and would be restrained from doing the things she wanted to do.
The court, after hearing legal arguments, granted the stay pending the hearing of the appeal to the United Kingdom Privy Council.
