Registration of Title

• Pages: 245-263

DOI: 10.4324/9781003186946-13

The nature of the system of registration of titles in Jamaica was succinctly explained

by Lord Millett, delivering the judgment of the Privy Council in Half Moon Bay Ltd

v Crown Eagle Hotels Ltd:1

The Registration of Titles Act, 1889 introduced a Torrens system of land registration

to Jamaica. The general features of such a system are very familiar. Title to land and

incumbrances aecting land are entered or notified in the Register Book, and every-

one who acquires title bona fide and in good faith from a registered proprietor obtains

an indefeasible title to the land, subject to the incumbrances entered or notified in the

Register Book but free from incumbrances not so entered or notified, whether he has

notice of them or not. The Register Book consists of the original certificates of title,

each of which forms a separate folium of the book. The registered proprietor is given

a duplicate of the certificate bearing the number of the volume and folium of the

Register Book in which the original is entered (RTA, s55).2 An instrument purporting

to aect land is taken to be registered when it is produced for registration, provided

that it is subsequently entered both on the relevant folium and on the duplicate (RTA,

s58). There are further provisions to ensure that every entry on the original certificate

is matched at all times by a like entry on the duplicate.

Although most other Caribbean jurisdictions also have Torrens-style registration

systems, the vast majority of judicial decisions (including numerous Privy Council

judgments) on Torrens registration are concerned with the interpretation and appli-

cation of the Registration of Titles Act of Jamaica. The discussion in this chapter

will accordingly focus on the Jamaican Registration of Titles Act, with reference to

the equivalent provisions in the other jurisdictions, wherever relevant.3

THE REGISTRATION PROCESS

Bringing land under the Act

Sections24 and 25 provide that land may be brought under the operation of the

Registration of Titles Act by the Registrar registering the title of some person as the

proprietor in the manner prescribed by the Act. Such title may be either absolute

or qualified.

1 (2002) 60 WIR 330, at 336.

2 By s65, two or more persons may be registered as joint tenants or tenants in common. In the

case of the former, one certificate is issued; in the case of the latter, separate certificates repre-

senting the undivided shares may be issued. Cf Re Dunbar (1984) 21 JLR 41, at 43, per Bingham

J.

3 It was emphasised by Sir Terence Etherton in the Privy Council in Arthur v Attorney General,

Turks& Caicos Islands [2012] UKPC 30, paras 13–15, that ‘the Torrens system has been imple-

mented in dierent countries with varying degrees of flexibility’, and ‘it is necessary, when

considering the eect of legislation implementing the Torrens system in any particular juris-

diction, to focus on the provisions of the particular jurisdiction in question, and to take special

care when considering the relevance and usefulness of judgments in cases in other jurisdictions

where the legislation, policy considerations and general principles of law may be dierent’.

CHAPTER 13

REGISTRATION OF TITLE

246 Registration of title

Eect of registration of proprietor with absolute title

Section26 contains the important provision, fundamental to the Torrens system

of title registration, that a person registered with absolute title ‘shall be entitled to

hold such land in fee simple, together with all rights, privileges and appurtenances,

belonging or appurtenant thereto, subject ...

(a) to the incumbrances (if any) entered on the certificate of title; and

(b) to such liabilities, rights and interests as may under the provisions of this

Act subsist over land brought under the operation of this Act without being

entered on the certificate of title as incumbrances, but free from all other estates

and interests whatsoever ...’.4

Requirements for an application to have land brought under the

Act

Section28 lists the categories of person who may, by application to the Registrar in

the form specified in the First Schedule, have land brought under the operation of

the Act. Among such persons are: (a) persons individually or collectively claiming to

be owners of the fee simple, either at law or in equity;5 (b) persons having the power

of appointing or disposing of the fee simple; (c) trustees for the sale of the fee simple;

and (d) guardians of minors and committees of the estates of persons of unsound

mind. The section also contains the proviso that (i) a mortgagor is not entitled to

make an application unless the mortgagee consents, and (ii) a mortgagee may not do

so except for the purpose of the exercise of its power of sale, and only if the certifi-

cate of title is directed to be issued in the purchaser’s name.

By s29, every application to have land brought under the Act must be accom-

panied by the deeds, documents or other evidence relied upon to support the appli-

cation, as well as the fees payable and certificates or receipts relating to payment of

all quit rents, property taxes and succession duties.

Section30 provides that the land sought to be brought under the Act must be

identified either (a) by plat or diagram, or (b) by metes and bounds.

Some interesting procedural issues were raised in Registrar of Titles v Adela Inter-

national Financing Co.6 Here, a mortgagee, in the exercise of his/her power of sale,

agreed to transfer the mortgaged property to the purchaser and applied to the

Registrar to have the certificate of title issued in the name of the purchaser. An

unusual feature of the case was that the application for registration was in fact one to

re-register the land by plat or diagram, the original registration being by metes and

bounds, so that the application fell within s54(1) of the Act. Section54(2) provides

that such an application shall be treated as if it were an initial application to register.

4 The words ‘free from all other estates and interests whatsoever’ are echoed in s70, which

is worded, ‘absolutely free from all other incumbrances whatsoever’. It was pointed out by

Carberry JA in Wood v Wood (1982) 19 JLR 404, at 409, that s26 was ‘seldom relied on as com-

pared with section70’. In Pottinger v Raone, Privy Council Appeal No 64 of 2005, Lord Rodger

pointed out that, by virtue of s26, a person whose title is registered ‘is entitled to hold the land

in fee simple’.

5 See, eg, Grant v Tapper (2002) Court of Appeal, Jamaica, No 83 of 1999 (unreported); Re Dunbar

(1984) 21 JLR 41.

6 (1992) 29 JLR 352.