A family involved in a long battle for justice after a commission of inquiry found that their property at Spring Benny in Sandys had been taken off them through “fraudulent” transactions have lost another member.

George Brown spoke as the wait for a ruling on a civil case against Butterfield Bank dragged into its ninth month.

“It’s put a burden on the family,” Mr Brown told The Royal Gazette last week. “The Browns are losing family members.”

Brother to the late Progressive Labour Party MP Walton Brown, whose advocacy led to the creation of the Commission of Inquiry into Historical Land Losses, Mr Brown is eager to see the issue eventually get debated in the House of Assembly.

The CoI found in the Brown family’s favour that “two major transactions” related to four acres of land once owned by Mr Brown’s great-uncle, John Augustus Alexander Virgil, were improperly handled after his death in 1972.

While a lawyer for Butterfield Bank acknowledged in civil court in April 2025 that the documents pertaining to the sale were suspect, he argued that the bank itself had been unaware at the time — and made an application to have the case struck out.

Mr Brown said a letter from the courts on October 15 indicated that a ruling could be expected at the end of November or early in December.

Not long after that time frame passed, another family member died.

Mr Brown said: “My mother’s younger sister, Marie Spence, died a year after my mother passed as well — a year since my mother was buried and the case was brought to the courts. So that’s trauma for us. There’s a human cost.”

Ms Spence lived in Massachusetts. A funeral notice has yet to run in Bermuda, but Mr Brown said the loss added to the family’s frustration at the wait.

The bank’s application was being considered by Larry Mussenden, the Chief Justice.

However, Mr Brown said the family were told last week that Mr Justice Mussenden was still working on “another complex matter”.

He said: “The courts make a promise and if that promise fails, we’re in perpetual uncertainty.

“We need people to understand that justice must not be a privilege for the patient. It must be delivered while it still has meaning.

“I want to make it clear that I’m not attacking the Chief Justice, or the courts.

“What we’re speaking of is a systemic injustice. Because of this, my family and many families have had to endure generations of inequity — the public deserve answers.

“This is not even a full hearing; it’s just a strikeout, to see if it’s a trivial matter, if it’s frivolous or out of time. We say it isn’t, because of fresh, compelling answers.”

He added: “I’m just looking for the balance of justice. In the meantime, the Speaker of the House has acknowledged it can be debated.”

Correspondence seen by the Gazette indicated that Dennis Lister, the Speaker, considered the “landgrab” case to have run its course in the courts and was therefore no longer sub judice — meaning a parliamentary debate was now possible.

However, Mr Brown said a quick end to the strikeout matter remained elusive.

“I really feel that nine months is excessive,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

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