Carla Anita Cecilia Braynen Turnquest v Water and Sewerage Corporation (Bahamas)

Facts

The dispute concerned about a third of an acre of land at Mangrove Cay, Andros, in The Bahamas. The land is a short access road ending in a cleared area. On it stand two water storage tanks and associated apparatus belonging to the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), the main water supplier in The Bahamas. Mrs Turnquest claimed to have inherited the land from her father, Carl Braynen. She said he had acquired it under a 1963 Conveyance, which he drew up himself, from his mother, acting for the estate of Albert Braynen. The Conveyance described 660 acres "more or less", being a portion of "a 860 acres" out of an 18th-century Crown Grant to Joseph Evans, and referred to a will made in 1875 by William Henry Sweeting. No plan was attached. The documents did not show how either Sweeting or Albert Braynen had come to own the land. A surveyor instructed by Mrs Turnquest found WSC's apparatus on the land in 2010. She sued WSC for damages for trespass and delivery up of possession. WSC claimed no documentary title and relied instead on adverse possession from about 1983. At trial, Madam Justice G Diane Stewart dismissed the claim, holding that the 1963 Conveyance was not a good root of title. On 5 December 2023 the Court of Appeal reversed her decision. WSC appealed to the Privy Council.