2022 is a good year for justice in land matters for our Firm.
High Court judge Lady Justice Christine Ochieng considered a case in which our clients were the wife and children of a purchaser (now deceased) who had bought a parcel of land, but the purchaser had failed to obtain Land Control Board Consent for the transfer of Agricultural Land which is a mandatory requirement under Section 8 of the Land Control Act, without which, the entire sale and transfer of land is void.
Justice Ochieng noted that the provisions of Section 8 are written in mandatory terms – however, it can be inferred that a seller of land who had received financial consideration from a purchaser, held that land in a constructive trust, in favour of the purchaser despite not having complied with the strict interpretation of the law, and based on this constructive trust, a court can breathe life into a void land contract and enforce it.
In the current case, the purchaser and his family having bought land from the seller over 25 years ago, had been in physical possession of the land, and had even later buried the purchaser on that parcel of land. The failure to complete the transfer and registration of the land to the Purchaser before he died, gave impetus to the seller and his family to decry the agreement citing that the transaction was void because Land Control Board Consent for the transfer of land had not been obtained.
The Justice Ochieng directed that the Land Control Board Consent be obtained within 90 days thereof, and if the same is not attainable, the Land Registrar to intervene and issue the Title Deed, bringing an end to more than a decade of strife for this family.
24|08|2022