The coun­try’s high­est court has ruled that the tim­ing of reg­is­tra­tion of com­pet­ing in­ter­ests in prop­er­ty de­ter­mines which claim takes prece­dence.

De­liv­er­ing a judg­ment yes­ter­day, five Law Lords of the Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil de­liv­ered a prece­dent-set­ting judg­ment over the con­tentious le­gal is­sue, which would help re­solve fu­ture lit­i­ga­tion over prop­er­ty dis­putes.

The ap­peal re­lates to a law­suit brought in 2015 by Jim and An­na Marie Grant against Ler­rie Bovell, from whom they pur­chased a prop­er­ty lo­cat­ed at St Lu­cien Road in Diego Mar­tin.