By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An Anglican Bishop and his family have fought off multiple challenges to their ownership of 3,205 Rum Cay acres in a Supreme Court ruling billed as “cleaning up” much of the land speculation that has bedeviled the island for decades.

Bishop Gilbert Arthur Thompson, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, and his family’s company, Mondevco Ltd, have seen the Certificates of Title affirming their ownership of ten separate Rum Cay land parcels upheld by Justice Simone Fitzcharles in a September 23, 2025, verdict.

And, in doing so, she rejected two “adverse claims” to ownership of the same land that appear to be linked to persons and corporate entities known to have been long involved in Rum Cay real estate transactions where property titles were viewed as dubious or questionable.

Gilbert A. Thompson, the Bishop’s son and an attorney who represented his family in the Supreme Court battle alongside Dwyan Rodgers of Meridian Law Chambers, told Tribune Business that the verdict - if there is no appeal - will “clean up a lot of the problems that have been created” by the years-long orgy of land speculation impacting Rum Cay.

Asserting that the affirmed title certificates give the family ownership of around “one-third” of Rum Cay, he confirmed that the Bishop is a director and shareholder in Mondevco Ltd. “There were two adverse claimants,” Gilbert A. Thompson told this newspaper. “It took almost two years for the ruling to come out, and it came out in favor of Mondevco Ltd.” The family is now waiting to see whether either of its challengers will appeal the Supreme Court verdict, and has yet to determine what it will use the Rum Cay holdings for if their ownership stands.

“The good thing is this cleans up a lot of the problems that have been created,” he added. “This is essentially putting them to bed. All that stuff that was going on with Effie Knowles, that will now be null and void.”

Many of those involved in the Rum Cay land speculation orgy have claimed their roots of title ownership derive from the estate of the late Effie Knowles, a Bahamian who pursed a legal career in Florida and died in the 1980s after purportedly becoming an associate of the former US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Her name was again invoked by one of the rival claimants during the challenge to Bishop Thompson and his family, with Phillip McKenzie KC, the Davis & Co attorney and partner, asserting that his client through the Effie Knowles estate held “superior title” to a 232.68-acre portion of another 745.202-acre tract claimed by Mondevco Ltd. The outcome has to be determined at a separate hearing but, if it goes in the latter’s favor, could result in the Anglican bishop and his relatives owning just shy of 4,000 Rum Cay acres at 3,951.

Justice Fitzcharles’ judgment revealed that the 232.68-acre tract claimed by Mr McKenzie’s client, Atlantic Coast Development, was allegedly conveyed to it by another corporate entity, Newport Harbour Ltd, on June 9, 2006. This was followed by two subsequent “deeds of rectification” agreed between the two parties in 2016 and 2021, respectively. Tribune Business records confirm that both Newport Harbour Ltd and the other “adverse claimant” opposing the Thompsons’ title ownership, Sunward Holdings, were linked to and controlled by Billy Wayne Davis, who ran for the Republican nomination in Georgia’s 11th congressional district in 2016 and has enjoyed a colourful, and controversial, career in relation to Bahamian real estate sales on islands such as Rum Cay and Long Island.

Sunward Holdings, in particular, featured prominently in the case of Lawrence Foster who, in 2015, was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison for an $8.3m scam involving the sale of Rum Cay real estate that he did not own to unsuspecting investors. The land he was marketing was said during Mr Foster’s trial to be owned by Sunward Holdings.

Kenneth Toppin, a former law firm partner of ex-FNM Cabinet minister, Desmond Bannister, and ex-Bar Association president and Supreme Court judge, Ruth Bowe-Darville, testified during the trial that Sunward Holdings was incorporated by former attorney general, Carl Bethel, although there is no suggestion that either of them had done anything wrong.

Mr Toppin, at the time was a director of Sunward Holdings, and US federal prosecutors at the time alleged that the company was owned/controlled by Mr Davis. It has now popped up again, this time to contest the Thompsons’ ownership to six of the land parcels for which they were previously awarded certificates of title by the Supreme Court. And Sunward Holdings’ latest challenge was again supported by a January 25, 2023, affidavit sworn by Mr Toppin.

Meanwhile, Mr McKenzie denied during the trial that Atlantic Coast Development was a corporate alter ego and front for Island Acquisitions and its principal, Jorge Diaz, whose names have also been linked with land speculation in southern Bahamian islands such as Rum Cay and Long Island. He acknowledged, though, that Davis & Co is the registered office for both companies, but asserted that their ownership is different.

One Bahamian attorney, family with the real estate wheeling-and-dealing that has occurred on Rum Cay over several decades, told Tribune Business: “It’s just amazing the meal ticket that these people have made with claims from the estate of the late Effie Knowles. It’s absolutely appalling.”

Hailing the Supreme Court verdict in favor of Bishop Thompson’s family as “good news”, they suggested that it might halt ongoing land speculation for “some portion” of Rum Cay, but added: “So much of that island is in dispute. That island has got so far to go. It’s terrible.”

Justice Fitzcharles, in her verdict, dismissed the adverse claims of both Sunward Holdings and Atlantic Coast Development on the basis that they were “out of time” by failing to file and serve the necessary documents and pleadings within the deadlines stipulated by the Quieting Titles Act.

Mondevco Ltd and Bishop Thompson’s family, asserting that they were the rightful owners to “some 11 pieces, parcels or tracts of land situated on the tranquil island of Rum Cay” totaling 3,951 combined acres, had filed their petition requesting that the Supreme Court investigate title to these properties under the Quieting Titles Act - and issue them certificates of title - in early 2022.

Acting under an Order issued by then-justice Indra Charles, they advertised the petition as required by the Act on three dates - April 12 and 25, 2022, and May 6, 2022. The judge ordered that all adverse claims be filed within 30 days of the last date, setting this as June 5, 2022, but none were received by the deadline.

Both central and local government were also notified. An August 3, 2022, letter from the Attorney General’s Office “stated that the Department of Lands and Surveys and the Department of Housing have indicated that they do have some vested interest in some portions of the properties” but no details were provided.

The trial of Mondevco’s claim began on October 26, 2022, and then-justice Charles conducted a “site visit” on the subject Rum Cay lands on December 3, 2022. However, four days later, when the trial resumed on December 7, 2022, a David Strachan appeared, accompanied by Glenda Roker, an attorney with Davis & Co, claiming he owned the properties sought by the Thompsons.

Gilbert A. Thompson asserted that the land parcels were not part of any land belonging to the Strachan family. But, while Mr Strachan appeared when the trio resumed on December 15, 2022, Ms Roker said she had now filed an adverse claim on behalf of Atlantic Coast Development two days earlier. However, the claim was not physically served until six months later on June 22, 2023.

Finally, then-justice Charles on December 20, 2022, granted Mondevco certificates of title for ten of the land parcels - ranging in size from 16 acres to 1,185 acres - but excluded the remaining 745-acre tract due to Atlantic Coast Development’s claim to just over 232 or almost one-third of its acreage. The petition to determine ownership of this parcel was to be heard separately at a later date.

Then, on January 25, 2023, Sunward Holdings entered the fray seeking to set aside the title certificates granted to the Thompsons. While a “statement of adverse claim”, dated August 23, 2022, was attached as an exhibit to Mr Toppin’s supporting affidavit, Justice Fitzcharles said there was no evidence that then-justice Charles was notified or the necessary supporting documents accompanied it.

Mr McKenzie, in his arguments on behalf of Atlantic Coast Development, asserted that former Supreme Court judge, Neville Adderley, had ruled on February 29, 2012, that the estate of the late Effie Knowles was a better ‘root’ of title than that of Moses Deveaux - the one claimed by the Thompsons.

He argued that the Bishop and his family were merely “seeking to rehash the issue and arguments” relating to the superior title of the late Effie Knowles”.

However, Justice Fitzcharles ruled that both adverse claims should be struck out. Sunward Holdings filed its proceedings “some 78 days out of time” on August 23, 2022, while Atlantic Coast Development was 190 days late on December 13, 2022. And she added that Sunward Holdings had “no proper adverse claim” because it was not supported by the necessary evidence and pleadings.

Noting that was not the only “flaw” with Sunward Holdings’ case, she added that it can only challenge Mondevco Ltd’s certificates of title if it can provide “sufficient grounds and cogent evidence”. As for Atlantic Coast Development, it was between 56 days and 83 days “out of time” in meeting the deadline set for it to submit supporting documents for its adverse claim.

“Unless remedied by the Parliament of The Bahamas, an adverse claim not filed and served within the time limits fixed by the notices issued under… the Act operates as an absolute bar to that claim under the Act,” Justice Fitzcharles wrote. “The second adverse claimant [Atlantic Coast Development] is the author of its misfortune. It cannot now seek to have a third chance.”

And, setting out why the Government has introduced reforms to create a system of registered land in The Bahamas, the judge added: “Land is a precious commodity in The Bahamas. The Bahamas is one of the most desired countries and tourist destinations in the world. It consists of an archipelago of 700 islands and cays renowned for sun, sand and beautiful beaches.

“These factors, in part, contribute to the steady appreciation in the value of such land. The issues surrounding land are particularly compounded by the notorious fact that there exists no registered land system in The Bahamas. There exists no absolute ownership of land.

“Where issues arise as to the ownership of land in The Bahamas, the party who possesses the stronger and better title to the land will succeed notwithstanding that any other party may once have had a stronger or better title than that party claiming it.”