Ascension : Ask A Lawyer
Submitted by The Islander (Islander Internet Editor) 04.12.2008 (Article Archived on 18.12.2008)

Things have been hectic on the Legal Side in St Helena with the arrival of the Chief Justice who launched into his busy list.

In addition my pending visit to Ascension Island means that a lot of things have to be finished before I go.  Nevertheless questions are always welcome so don’t hesitate to make me even busier - emails to Solicitor@cwimail.sh. 

Question: Our marriage is getting rocky and we are having lots of rows.  My husband says that the house is in his name and he paid for it out of his money from Ascension so I will have to leave with the children.  Can he throw us out?

Answer:   Unhappily this is a frequent question that comes across the desk at Ladder Hill Fort.  The level of desperation and misery for all concerned (there are always two sides to every breakup) is such that no law can mend.  There are however some ground rules.  It is rare that the court (and in the end it is the court that has to sort out these messes) will take the name that the land is registered in as the final word.  Most marriages involve a natural sharing of tasks and certainly in St Helena the name on the land certificate seems to me to be almost a matter of chance.  The glory of marriage, when it is working well, is that the parties work together: sometimes looking after children sometimes working and where the house is purchased over years of marriage the starting point of the court will normally be a split of the property equally.  Thus the husband in this case is likely to find out that he is wrong to assume that the house is his because his name is registered with Legal and Lands.  Any attempt to drive out the family is likely to result in a swift court order preventing such behaviour and even, in some cases, removing the husband to provide a home for the family. 

The questioner here talks about rows and I have two things to say about this.   Firstly I have worked with children for many years and I know and all the research into family breakup proves that children suffer hugely from parental rows which are enormously frightening to a small child. They need to be able to look to their parents for security and reassurance.  If those who should protect the child in fact frighten him then that has a huge effect on the child’s development.  I would plead with any who are finding that they are involved in rowing relationships to seek help because, and I know this sounds a terrible thing to say,  exposing your child to anger within your  relationship can be harming your child almost as much as if you were hitting him or her.  Indeed there is research evidence that says that more long term damage is done to the child who observes rows and violence between parents than the child who is hit occasionally.  It is security and protection that children need and the child in a violent home does not get that.  My plea is that you protect your children as far as humanly possible from observing rows and don’t think that just because they are in bed they don’t know about it - they are hiding under the blanket in the dark terrified!  The second thing is that no-one child, adult, husband or wife has to live in fear of violence.  The law is often thought slow but on this everyone, the court, the lawyers, the magistrates and the Chief Justice will move with lightening speed to protect the abused.

Question:  A few weeks ago you indicated that on Ascension a whole raft of fundamental rights is omitted from the draft constitution.  Can that really be right?

Answer: The short answer is “No”.   I am a great believer in the principle that if you get something wrong you don’t ignore it and hope it will go away but admit it and do what you can to correct it.  It is quite simple -  I misread section 122 of the draft constitution.

The reality is that the draft in fact only excludes two rights namely the protection of freedom of movement (section 12) and the right not to be deprived of St Helenian status (section 20).  Both of those are really inevitable and have been drafted with particular reference to St Helena.  My mistake was reading the omissions as being all sections between 12 and 20.

So it is indeed clear that I was absolutely wrong when I indicated that there were numerous other rights excluded.  I apologise to all for the error and, as I said, have done my best to let everyone know that in this particular case the article might better have been titled “Don’t Ask a Lawyer”.

 Question:  Why does Bob the Builder have a Yellow Hat?

Answer:  This is I feel sure something that has hugely troubled the great minds of this island.  It is another example of it not really being safe to let me loose.  I walked with some friends down Shark’s Valley on the one day of St Helena summer (do you remember that weekend a few weekends ago).  It was mighty hot and I had not taken a sun hat.  Sharks valley seems to attract flotsam and jetsam (note for trivial pursuits and pub quiz addicts  - flotsam is stuff washed overboard ships - jetsam is stuff chucked overboard – there used to be all sorts of legal ramifications – you could keep jetsam because it had been abandoned but had to return flotsam to its rightful owner). In amongst the drift wood and fishing floats (of which there are lots perhaps indicating some big boats fishing somewhere) there was a white “Bob the Builder” hat – rather battered and cracked but effective sun protection.  The hat came home and some time later, as Halloween approached, I thought of wearing it with a sheet as “the ghost of Bob the Builder”.  I therefore industriously mended the hat with superglue and it worked well.  It was at this stage that, as Hoffman said “I lost my presence of mind” and placed the hat on my head to admire the image in a mirror.  The nature of this mistake only became apparent when I went to remove the hat only to find it firmly super-glued to my head.  Those who have seen me wandering about in a barrister’s wig won’t know that it is to cover up the bald patch left when the helmet was removed!

As I hope you are aware I am due to arrive in Ascension on the 7^th December and please do contact Marion Leo to arrange a time when we can get together if you think a meeting would be useful .  I am greatly looking forward to my visit and hope to meet as many people as possible.