Court hands down decision on real estate ownership

The National National

THE National Court has finally handed down its decision on the ownership of real estate which was acquired by the Evangelical Bible Mission in the pre-independence era for mission purposes in the Central Highlands of New Guinea to spread the Gospel.
The court decision of May 23, 2013, which was registered in the National Court files, came to the attention PNG Bible Church Inc chairman on Aug 17 this year.
The National Court decision states that these properties were held in “bare trust absolutely for the plaintiff,” PNG Bible Church Inc that ends 11 years of legal battle between the two parties who claimed ownership of the same properties.
The National Court decision further strengthens the property transfer agreements made during the 1980s between the parent organisation (Evangelical Bible Mission) and the national entity (PNG Bible Church Inc.) set up by the parent body to continue the mission work after independent PNG. Despite the existence of these arrangements including the Resolution sponsored by Gerald Bustin, the son of the late Green Talbot Bustin and now the president of Evangelical Bible Mission, to transfer all properties to PNG Bible Church Inc, he came and served an eviction notice on May 14, 2008 for (Wane Ninjipa and Pilipo Miriye) to vacate Pabarabuk Mission Station in 14 days and hand it back to the parent organisation (EBM).
However, when that attempt was unsuccessful, the PNG director of Evangelical Bible Mission and the Public Curator of PNG Paul Wagun arranged with the deputy Registrar of Titles Benjamin Samson to re-issue titles of eight of the 12 Mission Stations to Evangelical Bible Mission, claiming that the titles were either damaged or missing in March 2009.
PNG Bible Church leaders saw a newspaper advertisement, consulted her lawyers who successfully took out a temporary court injunction until substantive matters were heard in a competent court to decide the ownership of the properties.
The chairman welcomes the judge’s decision that affirms his long held position that these properties were transferred to PNG Bible church Inc by the parent organisation and held in trust for the plaintiff, PNG Bible Church Inc. The court further found that “The Evangelical Bible Mission had no legal existence and was unable to act in any way” in the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
The court also found that Evangelical Bible Mission was removed from the register of companies in 1965, which states that Section 378 of the Act is sufficient to render void any purported re-instatement of the company (Evangelical Bible Mission Limited) by the Registrar in 2009 – some 38 years after the expiration of the term permitted by statute for this to take place.
The court said: “Until it (EBM) became extinct, it had capacity to transfer the property to the plaintiff who, as cestui qui trust, was entitled to require the trustee to carry out its duties absolutely.”
The court found that;

  • The party beneficially entitled to the registered title of the pieces of property the subject of this action was the plaintiff. – Papua New Guinea Bible Church Inc.;
  • The Registrar of Titles had the power under section 372 of the Act as the representative of the defendant company presently recorded on the titles to sign any relevant instrument to give effect to the transfer of those titles to the Plaintiff.
  • The purported re-instatement of the defunct company, Evangelical Bible Mission, was void as being in contravention of section 378 (1) of the Companies Act.