By E. Williams
How does someone steal a public road, overtly alter the existing right of way or easement over it that belongs to others, then swear in Court documents that they own that roadway? Then they erect hindrances to curb the enjoyment of its use to others entitled to pass over it, install spy cameras along its route, and, boldly put up signs warning others not to trespass over it.
Ask Louis Bacon, the elusive Hedge Fund manager, who has gotten more emboldened in his Lyford Cay duel with Peter Nygard, the Canadian Fashion Mogul.
“No question about it. Mr. Bacon has new condescending airs about himself and new razor porcupine spines. His lawyers at Graham Thompson & Company seem to get any appointment they want from this new PLP administration and they have the ear of powerful and influential forces. So if you are Mr. Bacon why not apply the screws a little tighter,” says a credible source who works in the legal and real estate field. “Mr. Bacon played the role of the good neighbor”, when he first came to The Point House, a part of his $30 million estate next to Mr. Nygard’s $100 million Mayan themed homestead on the southwestern point of Lyford Cay, this reporter was told.
During the FNM Government’s last term in office, Mr. Nygard found himself in the middle of a sortie of surprise attacks from his “good neighbor”, Mr. Bacon.
Another reliable source close to the Nygard camp reveals that “Mr. Nygard thought that he and Bacon had a great relationship – cool, friendly, cordial is how we would describe Mr. Bacon’s conduct in the many meetings he had with Mr. Nygard. Looking back, I can see why Peter would genuinely think Bacon was a good neighbor. But all along, Mr. Bacon and his lawyers at Graham Thompson were preparing and plotting a fatal strike to take Nygard Cay and chase Peter out of town in ignominy and disgrace.”
“The plot was disguised in many shapes and forms. From any assessment of how it was hatched, exported and enacted, one would have no doubt that there were clever legal minds behind it every step of the way. It is now no secret that many Bahamian professionals stepped over the line and got involved in the larceny of their big spending foreign client. Mr. Bacon could not have affected this now exposed strategy to manipulate government agencies so as to forcibly take Nygard Cay from Peter, if he did not have the full concurrence of others,” this source says.
“And then to add insult to injury or to throw pepper in the fire, Mr. Bacon became an ally of the then ruling Free National Movement governing party (May 2nd 2007-May 7th 2012) which turned out to be new part of the strategy to weaken Peter and bring him to his knees. This manifestation of this was powerful FNM Officials publically berating Peter and covering up for Mr. Bacon as his master strategy to own Nygard Cay was being implemented,” the source continues.
“I am talking about the horrific character assassination on Mr. Nygard. They were actually paying persons to make false claims and allegations to cause Peter to suffer in his business and personal life. The physical damage done to Nygard Cay by a fire in 2009, could not be repaired as licenses to rebuild were denied without reason. Who cannot appreciate the psychological trauma they put Peter through when they changed the lawful Easement which gives access to Peter’s property and began suggesting that his attempts to correct the situation was unacceptable behavior for an expatriate resident. Clever lawyers had to be in on this. They wanted to land lock Peter and force him to sell to Bacon,” the source said.
“Peter’s lawyer, Keod Smith, discovered the Easement plot and now has also discovered that adjoining the roadway of the Easement is actually another roadway which Mr. Bacon had sworn in Court documents was his property although, in fact, it does not belong to him, and never did. Yet Bacon used this public roadway to inflict even more damage on Peter,” the source said.
“We are concerned as to why a senior barrister such as The Honourable Sean McWeeney in the Chambers of Graham Thompson & Co, a former Attorney General, would not have intervened and stopped this sinister plan of Mr. Bacon. We are more concerned because after the FNM’s lost of the May 2012 general elections, the Bacon side seemed to have abandoned their plot and offered to settle the matter by returning Mr. Nygard’s property rights to him,” a source close to Nygard said.
The source went on to say that “Peter co-operated. In the interest of the good image of The Bahamas, he wanted this dispute that was being publicized internationally to go away. With this in mind and in the spirit of the settlement negotiations, Peter withdrew and discontinued a filed criminal prosecution in the Magistrate’s Court against Bacon and nine other high profile persons for CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY who were involved in the plot to chase him off Nygard Cay. In exchange, Mr. McWeeney, through his partner, Mr. Robert Adams, undertook not to file any lawsuits against Mr. Nygard or any of his Bahamian supporters who took it upon themselves to expose the ongoing plot to destroy Peter and get him kicked out of The Bahamas. But Bacon and his lawyers reneged and filed two law suits against Mr. Nygard as well as suits against six of those persons supporting Mr. Nygard. It is telling that while some of those Bahamians being sued by Bacon were actively and openly involved in getting the PLP reelected in the May 2012 general elections, Mr. Bacon’s money was employed to keep the FNM in office to wield the very same power which, through the PLP, Graham Thompson & Co has now been handsomely benefited by getting key roles on key government boards and commissions,” the source said.
“This is even a greater and more deliberate harassment on Peter since Mr. Bacon fully understands that the effects of such frivolous law suits, is that it will cost Nygard millions more to defend his reputation; money that can be directly injected into our economy to rebuild Nygard Cay. And then the Bacon camp returned with a double whammy on Mr. Nygard, accusing him in the Supreme Court of being in contempt of court action for attempting to right the very wrongs perpetrated on him by Bacon in the first place,” the source said.
“Based on what Attorney Smith had discovered about Bacon’s attempt to commandeer the public roadway which was set out in affidavit evidence in the Supreme Court, Bacon’s lawyers at Graham Thompson & Co were forced to drop a criminal case against Mr. Nygard accusing him of removing gates used to block the entrance roadway to Nygard Cay and had been installed on wall pillars that were built by Bacon on the public roadway he had claimed was his. The clear reason for withdrawing was that it could be definitively proven that the gates were wrongly built on land that never belonged to Bacon. You can’t claim that a crime was done to you when the thing that you are complaining about is or may be, in and of itself, subject of criminal activity. Bacon would have had to rely on the untrue evidence he had others swear on his behalf in the court that he, in fact, owned the land. Meanwhile Nygard finds himself trapped in a legal catch 22 – if he didn’t defend his rights to the roadway he would lose his rights – but in trying to defend those rights, he was open to being sued by Bacon who, under the FNM Government, Bacon had what appears to be carte blance to do as he wished. Over a year ago, two of Nygard’s staff were arrested, charged and arraigned before the Courts for putting up signs on the very wall-pillars that have now been shown as not belonging to Bacon in the first place and known by him when he pressed charges,” the source said.
It has been reported that in the Nygard Camp, they are now bracing for an all-out legal battle to have the Court declare once and for all that this public roadway, which is a part of the major bone of the property dispute, does not and never did belong to Mr. Bacon.
The roadway in question forms part of a series of conveyances dating back to 1938 where Sir Harold Christie, the developer of Lyford Cay, termed it as a road reservation and granted rights of way in the traditional common law phraseology to all future title holders to the surrounding benefiting plots of land.
According to affidavit evidence before the Court, Mr. Bacon had reportedly erected gate pillars and a gate on this road that does not belong to him. Mr. Bacon also locked the gate and put up signs which read:- “Private Property ” and “ DO NOT TRESPASS ”; signs as well as erecting various obstacles on the road such as eight “nasty speed pumps and huge boulders . Bacon also arranged to have the elevation of the roadway to be changed, creating a permanent deep mud-lake in front of the ornate gilded uniquely designed entrance gate to Nygard Cay. This makes in virtually impossible to enter after small squalls of rain because the water pools.
Mr. Nygard, who lives at the most western end of this roadway, is claiming that Mr. Bacon’s improper and illegal trespass on the road reservation should be halted by the Courts.
A review of the compendium of conveyances dating back from 1938 to the present show that this road reservation remains in the ownership and possession of one of the several companies Sir Harold used to engage his property holdings in the Lyford Cay subdivision in Lot numbers one (1) and two (2) in Block number one (1).
Mr. Nygard is also challenging Mr. Bacon’s disturbance of a deeded Easement or right of way that goes over Mr. Bacon’s property, but once again Sir Harold as predecessor in title and subdivision developer had deeded a right of way to future owners of the adjacent property which became Nygard Cay.
Mr. Eric Gibson, Property Manager for Mr. Nygard, makes these assertions in an Affidavit filed in the continuing Supreme Court action to show Mr. Bacon’s claim to ownership of the road reservation is deceitful and false.
Mr. Gibson explores the root of title to Mr. Bacon’s Point House property and concludes that not only does Mr. Bacon not own the road reservation, but Mr. Bacon’s predecessors in title did not themselves own this road reservation. When the company owned by Mr. Bacon purchased the Point House, the acquisition did not include that road reservation because the previous owners did not own it, never suggested that they did or try to convey it to Bacon.
The following are excerpts lifted from Mr. Gibson’s Affidavit:-
“CONCLUSION
- From the most recent survey plan completed by Donald Thompson, (see Exhibit “E.G.7” above). I verily believe it to be clear that Bacon has not only wrongly altered the easement over his property without the approval of Mr. Nygard and in ways that amount to an interference of his use, but has unlawfully possessed significant portions of roadway (original right angled roadway and 300ft stretch of road reservation) the title of which was NOT his or that of his company.
- In light of the foregoing, Attorney {Keod} Smith concluded and I verily believe that the gate erected by Mr. Bacon is completely wrongly placed. I believe that Mr. Bacon knowingly erected it on property that was not his in an attempt to clandestinely cordon-off a road reservation which was preserved for, inter alia, Peter Nygard as the owner of Nygard Cay, the most southwestern tip of the 11.8 acres of land being Lot 1 Block 1 of Lyford Cay Estates according to the site Plan in the Deed of Conveyance dated 12th December, 1938 by which the said 11.8 acres was sold to Harold G. Christie by Lyford Cay Co. Ltd. While the northern placed pillar of the gate appears to be on Mr. Bacon’s premises of The Rocks, the southern placed one is clearly built in the middle of what was designed to be the road reservation, the land of which has never been conveyed to Mr. Bacon or any of his companies. In any event, the space between the pillars is only 18.5 feet when it was reserved as being 25 feet.”
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