‘Impossible to fix’

DEVELOPER JULIET Holness has told a court she is facing a “failed” $800-million housing project in St Andrew if issues with an access road are not addressed in a high-stakes title dispute.

“I cannot complete the development,” said the lawmaker, who pointed to an expert report on the value of what has been constructed between 2012 and 2020 by JAJ Development Holdings Ltd, in which she is a director and majority shareholder.

JAJ is suing Charlene Ashley, the owner of Lot 21A in Leas Flat, Red Hills, for the title of the land – a piece of which it bought in 2012 for $22 million. Payment includes giving Ashley one of the apartments from the complex. JAJ’s portion is Lot 21B or lot two.

Ashley has countersued, alleging trespassing by JAJ.

The trial started on Tuesday, with Holness the first witness called. She denied Ashley’s accusations that she has been a bully who tried to take away portions of Lot 21A.

Holness said no work has been done on the property since February 2020, and a title she received in December 2022, from Ashley, which was intended to satisfy a court order, does not help because according to her, the document is not in accordance with the terms of the 2012 sales agreement.

Holness said the width of the reserved road on the title is three metres, or five metres short of what was allegedly agreed. And as a result, the title, she said, “does not allow, in any way” for the development to “abide” by the laws of Jamaica.

“I will be in breach of the KSAMC (Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation) approvals, firstly. I will be in breach of the fire department’s requirements and I could never in good conscience either spend another dollar or attempt to sell to anyone any of those units because they will not be able to occupy them … not be able to receive titles for any of those units,” said Holness, a member of parliament and wife of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Pressed by trial judge David Batts, Holness later explained that the width of the access road to the complex was below the minimum requirement of 6.2 metres established by the KSAMC when it approved the subdivision of the land in 2011.

“The title has only three metres for the access road. It also has new concrete structures built that have closed sections of the access way and have gone even further into the access way than they were originally in the design of the development,” Holness said.

She continued: “All the units require the access road on ground [level] because there is no space on the development to make any corrections to facilitate this reduced access way. Unless fixed, I have on my hands a totally failed development impossible to fix, impossible to sell.”

Holness said she has not visited the site since she got the title, but from the document, she believes that the new concrete structures include a boundary wall built by Ashley.

However, Ashley’s lawyer, Aon Stewart from the firm Knight, Junor & Samuels, has denied that there are new concrete structures on the property.

He has maintained that JAJ has destroyed property belonging to Ashley and even made several encroachments.

The items allegedly include a doghouse, which Holness admitted she ordered demolished, without notice in 2018, after waiting for three-four years for it to be addressed.

However, she has insisted that the structure was not concrete and was located on the access road and not on Ashley’s property.

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Ashley has also contended that in October 2019, JAJ removed 10-15 feet of a border wall on her property to carve out more space for the development, a claim Holness has rejected.

She instead argued that JAJ’s equipment was used at the alleged request of Ashley’s husband to assist with work on a section of the wall’s foundation.

“From a distance, I observed them (Earl Ashley and … somebody who was operating my backhoe) digging,” said Holness, adding that she did not know whether the digging was taking place on the Ashleys’ property as she could only see what work was being done at the border of the reserve road and the Ashleys’ property.

Holness agreed with Stewart’s suggestion that “generally”, “the act of demolishing the wall was an alteration or modification of … a concrete structure”.

And Holness denied Stewart’s suggestion that her delays in providing the drawings for the development delayed Ashley’s attempt to provide the title.

Ashley has said that she got the drawings in July 2020, a year before Holness said they were amended to correct an “error” discovered in 2013.

The drawings of 2013 included the Ashleys’ lot and was used in the calculation of the density, meaning that it allowed the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation to approve more habitable rooms for the development.

Anthony ‘Martin’ Harris, the foreman for the JAJ construction work, took the stand Wednesday and denied allegations that he and his team had intimidated Ashley and her husband.

In a 2018 incident, Ashley said she saw Holness instructing workers to demolish “an entire concrete terrace”.

“‘I appealed to Holness to desist from destroying my property (chain link fence, stepping stones, pathways, and all the sentimental items - bricks from my first home, plants, a large fish tank, etc) which I had there on the concrete terrace. Holness hissed her teeth and ignored my pleas …’,”Ashley said in her witness statement. .

Ashley further argued that she started to video-record the incident with her cell phone but “Holness’ foreman grabbed the phone from me, deleting the video, refusing to return the phone”.

Harris dismissed those claims and instead asserted that Ashley had approached him and pointed her fingers in his face.

He said the matter was resolved amicably, but Ashley’s lawyer suggested that it was not so and that a police officer who was called by Ashley’s husband suggested that Ashley should file a report. He did not say whether a report was made.

Holness’ case is being led by Rose Bennett-Cooper and Sidia Smith from the law firm Bennet Cooper Smith. They are expected to call more witnesses Thursday.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com