Mylene Richardson
PHILIPSBURG--The Ombudsman of St. Maarten is biased in the investigation into Over the Bank/Vineyard Heights, Mylene Richardson told The Daily Herald on Sunday.
In 2018, Richardson filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against the government for awarding plots in Vineyard Heights. “The Ombudsman took the view that our land belongs to the government.”
Ombudsman Gwendolien Mossel dismissed the complaint with reference number OM-OBM 2018/00451-8 on January 31, 2019, by stating that the Ombudsman refrained from further investigation.
“She wrote that the Court has ruled that Vineyard Heights parcels are owned by Country St. Maarten,” said Richardson. She explained that the Ombudsman relied on the Henson vs Country Sint Maarten case, in which the Court had ruled in favour of the Country on November 16, 2018.
George Henson claimed in vain the area Over The Bank where he had grazed cows and goats for years. On plot 290/1984 he had built houses that he rented out. From that plot he had a measurement letter drawn up. The government had never protested this, said Henson, who argued that he was entitled to the ground because of the expiration period.
The basis for the claim is “the unattended estate of Ann Richardson”. In 2007, Henson filed a case against notary Francis “Gachi” Gijsbertha, trustee of Ann Richardson’s unattended estate, in which Henson invoked the expiration period and demanded a declaration that he had acquired ownership of the plot. The Court dismissed the claim.
Eleven years later, Henson again got zero on his request. He has already built rental properties on the plot, but that does not give him a right of ownership of the land, according to the Court. The judges referred to the Civil Code, of which Article 1152 states: “If, at the time of the opening of an inheritance, no one comes forward to claim it, the estate shall be regarded as unattended.”
In that case, a curator is appointed on the recommendation of the Prosecutor’s Office, or by the judge of first instance. This curator, as it says in Article 1154, “is obliged to summon the heirs by convocations in the public newspapers, or other effective means.”
Curator Gijsbertha did not have to look far, said Mylene Richardson.
“Gijsbertha’s office is on the property of my grandfather Alfred Richardson, and it is well known to Gijsbertha that Over the Bank and Vineyard are not in the name of my great-grandmother Ann Richardson, but in the name of Alfred Richardson, who was appointed as the family solver and owner of the deeds.”
Mylene Richardson, who was appointed by the judge on November 5, 2020, as liquidator of the legacy of Alfred Richardson, visited the Kadaster land registry in Philipsburg several times. “They could not find any deed under the name Ann Richardson. Only deeds of our grandfather Alfred Richardson were registered.”
Alfred Richardson, husband of the late Imelda Vernom, who died in Curaçao in 1943, is registered in Philipsburg as the legal owner of 457,058 square metres of land, including the plots with measurement letter 290/1984 of 32,205 m2 and measurement letter 162/2014 of 80,500 m2. His son Marinus Richardson, father of Mylene, travelled to St. Maarten to claim the inheritance.
“From 1943 until his death in 1984, my father fought for family property, but he was opposed by the authorities, and by people who tried to steal the land. My father has even been threatened with death,” said the liquidator. “He was very sad about it and said to me: ‘Don’t go to St. Maarten, it’s too dangerous.’”
When her father died, Gijsbertha became curator, said Richardson. “He knows very well who the rightful owners of the land are. And his successor, notary Marlene Mingo, knows that too.”
At the Kadaster in Philipsburg, Richardson was advised to file a complaint with the Ombudsman and she did so with the verdict in the Henson vs Country Sint Maarten case in hand. Big was her surprise when she received a rejection in January 2019, Richardson said.
“Instead of helping us as citizens or acting impartially, the Ombudsman defended the ex-government that made the first illegal list of leaseholders of parcels at Vineyard Heights/Over the Bank. The Ombudsman assured me in writing that the government is the owner of Vineyard/Over the Bank, knowing that it is not true. Even the Kadaster, which advised me to go to the Ombudsman, could not believe this.”
After she was appointed liquidator by the Court a year ago, Richardson hoped that the ministers involved and the Parliament of St. Maarten would contact her. Now that all 45 rightful heirs of the Richardson legacy have been traced, Richardson would have liked to have sat down with the government of St. Maarten on behalf of the family for consultation.
But in the meantime, given the recent developments around Vineyard Heights/Over the Bank and the Ombudsman’s stance, the liquidator has little faith in transparency.
It is a sad state of affairs, Richardson said.
“Cabinet after cabinet has practiced political corruption, abuse of public power. It took all form of office-holders maintaining themselves in office by purchasing votes by enacting laws which use taxpayers’ money to steal the lands for their self-enrichment. They practised the use of powers of government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain with our lands.
“All forms of corruption they used in various ways, including bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling graft, and embezzlement.”
Notary Gijsbertha was not appointed by a judge as trustee, as the law requires, Richardson said. “The Richardsons never nominated a trustee and there is no proof that he was ever appointed by the court.”
She concluded that “Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, Minister of [Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] VROMI Egbert Doran, Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion, Notary Mingo and Mr. Gijsbertha are all in complicity and are personally accountable for unlawful acts regarding Over the Bank/Vineyard Heights.”
