The Court of Ap­peal on Wednes­day ruled that Dig­i­cel tres­passed when it con­struct­ed a com­mu­ni­ca­tions tow­er on land in Freeport, over­turn­ing a High Court find­ing and or­der­ing Dig­i­cel to com­pen­sate the landown­er’s es­tate. The amount of dam­ages will be as­sessed by a Mas­ter in Cham­bers.

Ap­peal judges Nolan Bereaux, Mark Mo­hammed and Ge­of­frey Hen­der­son de­liv­ered the de­ci­sion in a 36-page judg­ment au­thored by Bereaux, who found the tri­al judge erred in con­clud­ing the tow­er was not on land leased to Sura­j­dai Rawti Salazar.

The court not­ed that al­though the land was sold in 1960, it was on­ly reg­is­tered in 2014. Bereaux said the reg­is­tra­tion de­lay was not de­ci­sive—de­spite ques­tions raised about the doc­u­ment’s au­then­tic­i­ty—and that the case turned on doc­u­men­tary ev­i­dence that cor­rob­o­rat­ed Salazar’s claim.