The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court judge has ruled in favour of a group of directors in a long-running dispute over control of the Lucayan Towers South Condominium Association, ordering rivals who usurped authority of the complex to repay over $112,000 in maintenance funds used for personal legal fees and other unauthorised expenses.

Justice Loren Klein also dismissed a companion lawsuit that the rival group filed in 2013 to legitimise their authority, calling their claim “stillborn” and affirming earlier rulings that found their election invalid.

The ruling, delivered recently, brings an emphatic close to more than a decade of contentious litigation between two boards that each claimed lawful control over the Freeport-based condominium association.

The dispute dates back to January 2013, when a group of people led by Douglas Prudden convened what they styled as an Extraordinary Meeting of the association and declared themselves the new board of directors.

The judge noted that several members of this group were not unit owners and, therefore, ineligible to serve on the board under the governing documents.

Soon after asserting control, the group instructed unit owners to redirect their maintenance payments from the association’s official bank account to the escrow account of their attorney, Tiffany Dennison. They also attempted to gain control of the association’s bank accounts by threatening legal action against the bank and the previous board. The judge found these actions sowed confusion and mistrust among residents.

In his decision, Justice Klein upheld previous findings by former Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett and the Court of Appeal that the Prudden-led board was never validly elected and had no lawful authority to manage the affairs of the association.

“We now know, as found by the Court of Appeal, that they were not properly elected and therefore had no authority to do any of the acts they did in this regard,” he wrote.

The judge found that the unauthorised board used $70,646 in diverted funds to pay personal legal expenses between 2013 and 2014. He also accepted evidence that an additional $41,453 was disbursed for the same purpose after the group was temporarily given leave to manage the property in 2015 while legal appeals were pending.

Justice Klein ordered the group, including attorney Ms Dennison, to repay the full amount, concluding there was no viable defence to the claim. He also granted orders for a full accounting of the funds collected and spent, and of unit sales that occurred while the group exercised control of the association.

Evidence laid before the court showed that the group opened new bank accounts without court approval, continued to collect maintenance fees, and authorised the sale of multiple units, with the proceeds unaccounted for by the time the original board regained control.

In addition to the financial mismanagement, the ruling outlined a history of aggressive tactics by the unauthorised board, including removing official notices posted by the legitimate directors, changing locks on management offices, and distributing statements misrepresenting their authority.

Although the group claimed they believed they were acting with majority support from unit owners, the court found that they had no legal basis for their actions and failed to meet the requirements for valid election under the condominium’s by-laws.

The judge declined to issue permanent injunctions barring the group from future involvement in the association, saying there was no indication of recent attempts to interfere. However, he left the door open for the rightful board to seek such relief again if necessary.

Justice Klein described the decade-long legal saga as a regrettable reflection on the judicial process, noting that the original claims were filed in 2013 and only now resolved in 2025.

“It is regrettable and a poor reflection of our judicial system that it just now falls to me in 2025 to cut the Gordian knot of this protracted litigation,” he wrote.

He granted costs to the plaintiffs and directed that a formal order be drafted to give effect to the court’s findings.

The ruling is expected to bring some closure to residents of Lucayan Towers South, who have endured years of uncertainty over their property management. Still, the judge acknowledged that disputes over past unit sales and further accounting could result in additional legal proceedings.

Efforts to reach representatives of the Prudden group and attorney Tiffany Dennison were unsuccessful. Only one group member attended the most recent hearings, and neither Dennison nor the other named defendants filed a defence to the claims.