THE High Court has ruled in favour of a farmer in a legal battle over a 25-acre parcel of land in Mausica, D’Abadie.

In a 54-page judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Ricky Rahim declared that Jeason Khemraj Kanick Jnr had successfully proven his exclusive occupation of the land for decades and that the State’s title to the property had been extinguished.

The land forms part of the larger 73-acre area known as the Pineapple Smith lands, originally leased to Edward Barton Smith by the State in 1950. The lease expired in 1974, but Smith and his successors continued paying rent.