Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Attorney-at-law Alfred McPherson has lost his bid in the Supreme Court to get an order revoking the termination of his contract as Registrar of Titles.

McPherson was dismissed from his post as Director of Land Titles with the National Land Agency in January last year, and his instrument of appointment as Registrar of Titles was also revoked.

He took the issue to the Supreme Court contending that he had the dual functions of Director of Land Titles and Registrar of Titles. He said before his contract was terminated as Registrar of Titles, he was entitled to a hearing as that post was under the Civil Service Establishment Act.

McPherson stated that within a month of his appointment in July 2003, his relationship with Elizabeth Stair, the chief executive officer, became strained, largely because of her efforts to control his statutory authority as registrar in circumstances where neither the Registration of Titles Act nor the Executive Agencies Act entitled the CEO to control and direct the functions of the registrar.

Calls for executive agency

Last year, the Jamaican Bar Association had expressed concern with the frequency with which Registrars of Titles were leaving office, and also called for the Office of Titles to be removed from the umbrella of the National Land Agency and be established as an executive agency.

Solicitor General Michael Hylton, Q.C., and attorney-at-law Tasha Manley, who represented the Minister of Land and Environment (now Agriculture and Lands), argued that McPherson ought to have known and realised that the post included the position of registrar and the contract applied to that position as well.

The Judicial Review Court comprising Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh, Mr. Horace Marsh and Mrs. Justice Norma McIntosh heard McPherson's application, and held that McPherson was aware that his contract of employment related to both posts.

The court found that the method of termination agreed in the contract related to both positions, therefore, the Minister of Land and Environment did not err when he did not convene a hearing in relation to the post of Registrar of Titles.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com