MORE than 40 families of Calia settlement in Navua have been given a one-month notice by the High Court in Suva to vacate a piece of land they live on, which is now owned by Kelton Investment Limited.
The ruling was delivered by Master of the High Court, Vishwa Datt Sharma, on June 23.
The defendants in this case, Walusio Tabuyalewa Jr and his family members were given a notice on December 5, 2014, to vacate the land, however, the defendants failed to do so.
Mr Tabuyalewa and his family members are descendants of the employees of the Fiji Banana Venture Project between the 1930s and 1950s.
The court heard the descendants of the defendants were promised ownership of the land in 1995 by landlord Kenneth Hugh Ross who was acting as the representative of the previous owners of the land. They were told to stay on the land and built structures and lived on until today. Kelton Investment Limited is the registered proprietor of the land at Calia in Navua.
In his ruling, Mr Sharma said the defendants had no evidence of any written agreement between the previous owners allowing him and his family members to occupy the land.
“No evidence was adduced or produced to establish that the defendants obtained any consent from the owners of the land in question to build a number of houses on the said property or to make any improvement,” Mr Sharma said.
He also advised the defendants that in order to satisfy the court, the onus was on them to prove that he and his family members had some genuine belief that he owned the land he was living on or had ownership rights.
“No evidence has been produced by the defendants to state that the defendants was allowed to stay on the land and that the Ross family in Australia agreed through the District Officer Navua for a conditional agreement as to the ownership and legal transfer of the land to them upon the exchange of traditional gifts.”
Mr Tabuyalewa and his family members have been given until July 23 to deliver vacant possession of the land to the plaintiff.
