The Supreme Court dismissed an application by the trustees for the former owner of Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Vaisigano to join a land dispute lawsuit filed by the new owners regarding a parcel of land in Saleufi. 

The new owners of Aggie Grey’s Hotel, Leonard Cheng, Wanyeng He and Zuzheng Liu took the former owner Frederick Grey to court questioning the sale agreement and properties included. 

The issue concerns what property was conveyed in a Sale and Purchase Agreement (ASP) concluded in August 2017. 

The purchaser pleaded that he intended to purchase all the shares in Aggie Grey’s Hotel Limited (AGHL) and by extension and as a matter of law, all the assets and property owned by AGHL. 

At stake is a property at Saleufi, of which AGHL is the registered owner.  

It also includes parcels of land transferred by the Grey Investment Group (GIG) to itself after the ASP had been signed (“the GIG properties”).    

AGHL brought its claim to recover the Saleufi property on 6 October 2021.  

Then, by an amended statement of claim on 3 July 2023 sought to recover the Saleufi and the GIG properties.

Alan Grey Limited and the Trustees of the Aggie Greys Grandchildren Trust (AGGT) made the application to join the legal dispute over the terms of sale of the properties of Aggie Grey’s Hotel. 

The trustees said the properties were never intended to be conveyed to the purchaser under the ASP arguing they were family land and they were the registered owners. 

However, the hotel operator maintained legal ownership of the property and again demanded that the defendant repay payments it collected from leasing the property.

Furthermore, the hotel owner claimed they were incurring interest charges from the Development Bank of Samoa for outstanding mortgage payments secured to the Saleufi property.

Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese dealt with the joinder application from the trustees and ruled the claim was not compelling and rejected it. 

 The parties were ordered to prepare to attend a discovery of documents inspection and for plaintiffs to file a response to the counterclaim sought by Mr Grey.