The Claimants, Ms. Velda Franco, her aunt Mrs. Cecilia Cann and her brother Mr. Hugh Hollis, brought the case before the COI on behalf of their family, submitting a detailed presentation in support of their case. The case involves land in Spanish Point, Pembroke West, predominantly in the Boss’s Cove area, and also properties situated in High Point Road, Tulo Valley and Plaice’s Point Road. Ultimately, nine properties are claimed as historically part of the Estate of Samuel Wood and Ann Amelia Wood, ancestors of the Claimants. Claimant Ms. Franco alleges that her family has good title to the properties, illustrating possession and the transfer of landownership by testamentary disposition to her great grandmother, Mrs. Charlotte Alice Wood Wellman, her grandmother Mrs. Margaret Genevieve Hollis née Wellman and her father, Mr. George Llewelyn Hollis.
The Claimants allege theft of prime real estate land with waterfront access in some cases and being dispossessed in circumstances where they importantly assert that they are still in possession of the original deeds for some of the properties. They allege that a Joseph Burch Shaw Wood was paid by the residents of “Shaw Wood Gardens” to assist in illegally transferring landownership for properties owned by Grace Charlotte Phillip Oates to the “Shaw Wood Gardens” group. This alleged incident, the Claimants assert, occurred while some of the deeds were in the hands of the lawyer Charles Vaucrosson. Further, they allege that there is no documentation of a legal transfer of monies or documents from properties in Boss’s Cove to “Shaw Wood Gardens”; however, some of the owners were required to pay double to ensure that their paperwork appeared valid and that all the information was the same from one owner to the next.