Lewis, Raphael v Attorney General

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JLJDICATURE OF JAMAICA

CLAIM NO. HCV 0063 712004

BETWEEN RAPHAEL LEWIS CLAIMANT

AND ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR JAMAICA DEFENDANT

Nelton Forsythe and Latoya Green instructed by Forsythe & Forsythe for Claimant.

Nicole Lambert and Kevin Powell instructed by Director of State Proceedings for Defendant.

C; Heard 27&, 28& Se~tember2 006 and 7& Se~tember2 007

(1) Historians claim that Christopher Columbus to better illustrate his description of the

topography of Jamaica to his royal patrons, Ferninand and Isabellaof Spain, crumpled a sheet of

paper in his hand and presented it to them. It was an apt description. Jamaica is a mountainous

country, although the majority of its people live on the narrow coastal strip that skirts the island,

a substantial number resides, as the Claimant does, on its hilly hinterland.

(2) The majestic Blue Mountains rise to 7, 402 feet in the north-eastern section of the island,

and plunges within twenty miles to the southern shoreline. On that shoreline is situated the C district of Bull Bay, which is connected by roadway that runs northerly to the university district

of Papine. This road straddles the lower ridges of the Blue Mountain. It is along this roadway

that the Claimant Mr. Raphael Lewis' house is situated.

(3) Travelling northerly along this road to the lefl there is a hillside embankment, which rises

steeply fiom the roadway, and runs for most of its length fiom Bull Bay to beyond the

Claimant's house. On the right side of the roadway, the land descends to a river, which runs