THIS IS SICKENING: Denying Daphne - 99-Year-Old Woman, Daphne Thompson Waits 40 Years To Collect $1m for 900 acres of land From Jamaican Government For Land Sold To The State....especially in light of the recent decision by the National Housing Trust to spend $180 million to purchase just over nine acres of land in Trelawny.

Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator Jamaica Gleaner Sunday Nov. 16, 2014

If the Government of Jamaica had paid Daphne Thompson $68 per day, each day since 1974, they would have paid in full the near $1 million owed to her family for 900 acres of land by now.

File Photo: Grandmom

Instead, family and friends of the 99-year-old are pleading for the payment to be made immediately, especially in light of the recent decision by the National Housing Trust to spend $180 million to purchase just over nine acres of land in Trelawny.

At 59 years old, no one could have told Thompson that after 40 years, she would still be waiting to collect the money that her family is owed by the Government.

But that is the reality that now faces the senior citizen who has waited through the years for the final payment from a land deal.

"How much longer does a 99-year-old Jamaican woman have to wait for what is rightfully hers?" asked attorney-at-law Jacqueline Cummings, who is representing the Thompson family. "Why does any Jamaican family have to wait 40 years to be paid by the government for their property?" added Cummings.

According to the reports, in 1974 Thompson's husband Jasper and a friend agreed to sell the Government 900 acres of land comprising two properties in Newfound River and Kilmarnock, Hanover. Cabinet approved the purchase and an agreement was signed between the men and government officials. The Government paid them a portion of the purchase price with a balance to be paid to complete the sale. more