A Jamaican-born engineer in New York filed suit in the Supreme Court of New York against his 79-year-old mother for theft of his Bronx property, valued at almost US$2 million.
The suit lists the defendants as his mother, Lolita Channer, and his half-brothers, Bryan Channer and Oral Channer.
Esroy Bernard, 62, is a CAST/ UTEC graduate from Westmoreland who migrated to the United States in 1986. He seeks to recover a two-family dwelling he purchased on November 4, 1998, for a quarter million dollars through working three jobs, from savings and a personal injury settlement. Court papers say the property is at 1315 Morris Avenue in the Bronx, New York City.
After Bernard became a US citizen in the late 1980s, he sponsored his mother and stepfather to migrate from Westmoreland to the United States. To facilitate their welcome, he terminated rental for the lower level 2 bedroom unit at the property, losing $1350 monthly. 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 his family members’ needs were cared for, sometimes even at the expense of his wife and children.
Around 2007, by his love and affection for his mother, Lolita Channer, 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.
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. On the apparent instigation of his stepfather, the dwelling was instead signed over to the two half brothers, Bryan and Oral Channer, who arrived in the United States between 2013 to 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 into their pockets.
In a tearful unrecorded confession by phone, Lolita Channer is alleged to have admitted to wrongdoing about the Morris Avenue property but said 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.
“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 sobbed in a Caribbean Times interview. He added that he first met his mother when he was seven, as she left him with a relative after he was born. “In my mother’s absence, I was forced to grow up on goat’s milk and brown sugar,” he revealed, bursting into tears.
When Caribbean Times contacted his mother, Mrs. Lolita Channer, on Sunday for a response, she said she was too busy to talk and had no comment. This writer also tried to contact Bryan J Hutchinson, Mrs. Channer’s attorney in New York, but the calls were returned after press time.
“This is a complex case, but the preliminary conference is expected to begin in the courts in March, followed by discovery scheduling,” Lorna McGregor, Bernard’s attorney, told Caribbean Times this morning.
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