Attorney Gaumattie Singh was on Thursday granted leave to file an affidavit in response to the interim injunction granted to block her from selling a former client’s property, when the matter came up before acting Chief Justice Ian Chang in the High Court.
Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos, who apparently is Singh’s lawyer, left the court just before the case was called, saying that he had to be elsewhere. After the case was called, Singh then asked for leave to file the documents and was given until November 13.
The family of Singh’s former client, Aeri Aeman Aesop, who died in August last year, moved to the court against her after she produced a will which named her as the sole beneficiary.
Justice Chang had granted the interim injunction on September 17. According to court documents, Singh took possession of and was trying to sell Aesop’s Lot 468 Canvas City, Wismar, Linden property based on a fraudulent will that purported to bequeath the property to her.
The interim injunction, which was granted by Justice Chang, restrains Singh or anyone connected to her from vesting title, selling, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of, passing and/or accepting transport of Aesop’s Linden property and from intermeddling with the assets of his estate as well as costs.
It was based on an application filed on behalf of family members of Aesop, who charge that Singh had already failed to hand over the proceeds from the sale of an Industry, East Coast Demerara property that belonged to him.
The family said it feared that unless restrained by the court, Singh will sell the property to another person or persons.
The application was filed by attorney Gem Sanford-Johnson on behalf of Aesop’s daughter and only child, Coralie Adams, also called Caralie Adams and Doris Adams. She is listed as the plaintiff in the court documents in her capacity as executrix in a will that Aesop had made in 1991. However, because Adams is overseas, her son, Samuel Tyson Anthony Adams, is acting on her behalf in the court action by virtue of a power of attorney.
Samuel Adams, according to the affidavit, said that his mother was the sole executrix named in Aesop’s Last Will and Testament, which was deposited in November 1991 in the Probate Section of the Supreme Court Registry. It is the family’s contention that Samuel Adams and his two brothers are named as beneficiaries in the 1991 will, according to the documents.
The affidavit said that after Aesop’s death on August 2, 2011, Coralie Adams permitted one of his elderly friends, who was destitute at the time, to reside in his house at 468 Canvas City, Wismar, and Linden.
It is claimed that Singh, however, later evicted that person on the grounds that the property was hers.
Singh was known to Aesop’s relatives to be an attorney that he had retained in her professional capacity between 2000 and 2001 to file and conduct possession proceedings against a tenant who was occupying his land at Parcel 19 Industry, East Coast Demerara.
As a result of Singh’s eviction of Aesop’s friend, Samuel Adams travelled to Guyana in early August of this year on the instructions of his mother, who was unable to leave her employment in France. His visit here was to make arrangements to probate the Will and to establish on what authority Singh had made the eviction.
