By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Supreme Court has refused to grant an injunction barring a nephew from “forcibly evicting” his relatives and family members from an Exuma property used for a water sports and tourism business.

The seven-strong McKenzie family - Leslie McKenzie, Freeman McKenzie, Marvin McKenzie, John Olson McKenzie, Bessie Curtis, Jennifer McKenzie and Patrece McKenzie-Darling - are alleging that they were “wrongly dispossessed” by their nephew, Dwayne Gardiner, from the location where Barraterre Bone Fishing Lodge was established.

However, Mr Gardiner is countering that the property was conveyed to his now-deceased mother by two of his uncles after they were unable to raise the financing to complete the project. He is asserting that documentary title, and ownership, have passed to himself and his sister, with his mother having been advised on the transactions by former Exuma MP, Elliott Lockhart KC.

Justice Carla Card-Stubbs, in a July 17, 2025, verdict said the bitter family dispute concerns a property located 0.3 miles from Barraterre. The McKenzie family, which claimed to have been in possession of the site since 1973, are alleging that Mr Gardiner around April 30, 2022, entered the property without their permission and has taken control of it until now.

As a result, they applied to the Supreme Court for an injunction that would prevent Mr Gardiner from “taking possession of the claimants’ land situated in Barraterre, by wrongfully entering into possession of the said property and forcibly evicting the claimants and other authorised occupants thereof”. They also sought the return of appliances, furnishings and fittings from the restaurant located on the site.

“By affidavit of John Olson Mckenzie, the claimants assert that the land has been in the family’s possession since 1973, and that in 1978 the family completed construction of the building known as ‘Sailor’s Cove’,” Justice Card-Stubbs recorded.

“He avers that, in 1980, Freeman McKenzie, brother of the affiant and uncle to the first defendant [Mr Gardiner], received the first Business Licence for operation of ‘the family business known as ‘Sailor’s Cove’ and ‘Barraterre Bone Fishing Lodge’, which included a restaurant, gift shop and guest houses’.

“His evidence is that other Business Licences ‘to operate the business from the subject land’ were granted to his siblings, including the mother of the first defendant and later the defendant, which he avers was ‘with permission from the claimants’.”

Mr Olson Mckenzie alleged that his family “have never vacated the land or given up possession”. They agreed to allow Mr Gardiner to “operate and assist us with the day-to-day operations of the restaurant and renting the guest houses, as he complained of not having employment and being in need of financial assistance.

“The first defendant was allowed to operate Exuma Sport Rental between the periods from 2016 to 2022 with our permission as our nephew in need of assistance, and not a possessor of the land. The first defendant never had and or was given possession to the subject land, and simply ran the day-to-day operations with our consent.”

However, after Mr Gardiner presented a proposal to develop the location in April 2022, and was told he had “no authority” to do so, he then presented documents purporting to show that Freeman and Laverne McKenzie had conveyed the land to his mother, Marjorie. Freeman, though, denied any knowledge of such a transaction and said he received no compensation for the sale.

Mr Gardiner then asserted that he and his sister were the true owners of the property, and served his relatives with a Magistrate’s Court summons that they be “bound over to keep the peace” and no longer enter the disputed property.

Mr Olson McKenzie alleged: “Not having an understanding and appreciation of the Order, my family continued operating their business and I continued to operate my boat tours from the manor. This continued until my brother and I were arrested and placed in jail in Exuma, and we were flown to New Providence and brought before the Magistrate Court regarding the breach of the order.

“As a result of the same, my brother and I were ousted from the property which my family possessed for over 70 years and told that if we were to enter the premises again we would be placed in jail and ordered to pay costs.

“Shortly thereafter, the first defendant along with his agents came in and began to demolish the property, erect unauthorised structures, sold our equipment which we had in the restaurant and destroyed our personal belongings. Additionally, the first defendant entered into a lease agreement with Rubis, which has a gas pump on the land we possessed as mentioned,” Mr Olson McKenzie further claimed.

“To-date we have no access to the land due to the bound over in place in addition to our family being deprived of their right to continue occupying the land which we are in possession of.”

Justice Card-Stubbs, though, noted that Mr Gardiner was asserting documentary title that meant his uncles and other relatives have “no interest” in the property. “Dwayne Gardiner avers that Freeman McKenzie, second-named claimant, was in possession of the property but failed to develop it because of a lack of finance,” she wrote.

“He avers that in 1983, Freeman’s brother Lavern injected capital into the project but failed to complete it due to inadequate financing. His evidence is that his mother Marjorie (McKenzie) Gardiner stepped in to assist tin 1985 and that Freeman McKenzie ‘left Exuma thereby abandoning the property’ in 1990. He alleges that Lavern Mckenzie was resident in Nassau and ‘never moved to Exuma’.

“Dwayne Gardiner alleges that his mother bought the interests of Freeman Mckenzie and Lavern McKenzie in the subject property and that she subsequently conveyed the subject property to” Garco Investments Ltd, a company now jointly owned by himself and his sister.

Mr Gardiner, in his evidence, revealed that his mother was advised by Elliott Lockhart KC, the former MP and ex-judge whose assets are now being sold-off to repay multi-million sums purportedly owed to clients.

“In 1997 my mother, Marjorie Mckenzie Gardner, became employed in Exuma and proceeded to renovate the building on the property in dispute but, in speaking with Mr Elliott Lockhart who was her legal advisor, he informed her that she should purchase the interest of Freeman and Laverne Mckenzie who are her brothers before she invested any more monies in the property in dispute,” Mr Gardiner alleged.

“Following on the advice given to her by Mr Lockhart she then obtained a conveyance of the property shown on the plan attached thereto from Freeman McKenzie and Laverne McKenzie, both of whom claimed the land and were residing in New Providence.

“They sold all of their shares and interest in the property described in the schedule to the conveyance, which is the property now in dispute. None of the other claimants ever had any interest in the property as each of them own property in the same area.” Mr Gardiner said it was his mother who renovated the property and opened the bonefish lodge in 2003 with all the necessary government approvals.

“When she died in 2015 her insurance paid off a part of the loan obtained from the Bahamas Development Bank,” Mr Gardiner alleged. “My father put me in charge to run the business until he died in 2018, and thereafter the shares in the company were left to my sister and myself, with two-thirds to me and one third to her.

“In 2022, I received a letter requesting me to vacate the property. At that time my family’s combined occupation of the property amounted to 25 years plus the property was vested in the second defendant [Garco Investments].

“I consulted with Mr Lockhart, my mother’s attorney, with respect to the actions of the claimants and he presented me with a copy of the conveyance and I obtained an order from the Magistrates Court in Exuma against all the claimants on June 13 last year to prevent them from interfering with my business on the property,” he added.

“The claimant, John McKenzie, breached the court order on two occasions and he was fined by the magistrate accordingly.” The McKenzie family, in evidence before Justice Card-Stubbs, alleged that the livelihoods of Freeman and John Olson had been “severely impacted” by the dispute as the property was “their sole source of income”.

They added that Mr Gardiner had “inflicted significant and irreparable harm to the subject property and to the claimants’ reputations”, and challenged the validity of the conveyance. Mr Gardiner, though, refuted all these claims and argued that there was no serious issue that merited a Supreme Court trial.

Justice Card-Stubbs ruled that the seven-strong McKenzie family had failed to prove their “bald assertion” that the property had been in their possession for 70 years. “I find that the assertion of the claimants to possession as a family since 1973 have not been substantiated on this application based on the affidavit before me,” she wrote.

However, she said it was “notable” that Mr Gardiner’s documentary title only emerged after he was given notice to vacate the property. And the judge agreed with the McKenzie family that the dispute does deserve to go to Supreme Court trial, although she declined to grant an injunction given the damage it would inflict on Mr Gardiner’s business operations.