J’can engineer in NY sues mom for theft of property

A Jamaica-born engineer in New York has filed suit in the Supreme Court of New York against his 79-year-old mother for theft of his Bronx property, currently valued at almost US$2 million.

The suit lists the defendants as his mother, Lolita Channer, and his half-brothers, Bryan and Oral Channer.

Esroy Bernard, 62, is a University of Technology (UTech) graduate from Westmoreland who migrated to the United States (US) in 1986. He is seeking to recover a two-family dwelling he purchased on November 4, 1998, for $250,000 through working three jobs, from savings, and from a personal-injury settlement. Court papers say the property is located in the Bronx, New York City.

After Bernard became a US citizen in the late 1980s, he sponsored his mother and his stepfather to migrate from Westmoreland to that country. To facilitate their welcome, he terminated rental for the lower-level, two-bedroom unit at the property, losing out on $1,350 per month for rent, and he renovated the unit for their comfort and convenience.

They lived there happily and rent-free for several years, and after they became US citizens, they quickly sponsored their two sons from Jamaica to join them. During those years, Bernard ensured that the needs of his family members were taken care of, sometimes even at the expense of his own wife and children.

Around 2007, by virtue of his love and affection for his mother, Bernard entrusted all things to her, including a temporary transfer of the title of the Morris Avenue property. This was on the clear understanding that this was a short-term arrangement.

For clarity, the lawsuit stated, he took his mother to the real estate office of Dalling & Dalling Reality in nearby Mount Vernon, where it was discussed that the premises would be required to be returned to its original owner, her son.

REFUSAL TO COMPLY

A few years later, several attempts were made by Bernard to have his mother sign over the property back to him, but to no avail. Her refusal to comply was strident. The dwelling was instead signed over to the two half-brothers, who arrived in the US between 2013 and 2015.

In the words of the stepfather in court documents, the property was to be "his children's legacy".

The situation escalated after the half-brothers arrived from Jamaica and started taking steps to exclude Bernard from entering the property by changing the locks. It became unbearable when they also changed the locks on the entrance gate.

Additionally, the half-brothers altered the lease arrangement with the current tenant to divert the rent payments to their pockets.

In a tearful, unrecorded confession by phone, Lolita Channer is alleged to have admitted to wrongdoing in relation to the Morris Avenue property, but said that she was pressured to do so by her husband and her in-wedlock sons. And in a strange twist, it turned out that the attorney who handled the original purchase of the house for Bernard revealed that Lolita Channer, her husband and their two sons were coming to her as clients behind Bernard's back.

Bernard secured another attorney, Lorna McGregor, to represent him after this disclosure was made.

"I love my mother and family dearly, but I feel betrayed, and I want to get back my blood, sweat and tears from 37 years of hard work for my own two children," he lamented in a STAR interview.

He added that he first met his mother when he was seven years old, as she had left him with a relative after he was born. Pretrial hearings and depositions are scheduled to begin this month.