Marianne has been residing in Calangute house since 2009, lawyer tells court

Team Herald 

MAPUSA: Beleaguered French actress Marianne Borgo produced documents proving that she has been residing in the house at Calangute since 2009, as the hearing in the civil suit matter came up before the court on Monday.

During the hearing, Marianne’s lawyer Adv Benny Nazareth submitted the documents to the court and further sought time to produce additional documents.

Both the warring parties have prayed for Temporary Injunction.

On the other hand, Nirmala, widow of Francisco de Souza, told the court that the senior advocate engaged by her was arguing a matter in the High Court and therefore he was unable to represent her in the court and added that she be heard in person.

According to Nazareth, his arguments were fundamentally based on documents.

“I had to establish that Marianne was in possession of the house since 2009. I have established that by producing a residential permit given by the FRRO, Panjim, as per which, she is registered as a foreigner,” he said.

He further said, “They have given her a Residential permit to reside in the State with residential address. This was the first document.”

“The second document was Adv Francis D’Souza; the original owner had earlier entered into an agreement with one Lloyd to sell this particular house and property in November 2005. But later Lloyd got out of the agreement saying he does not want to purchase it, but Adv Francis could not return the money. So he looked out for another buyer Alison Potter, who agreed to purchase the house and property. Later an agreement was signed between the two while Potter was the purchaser,” he said.

“But after some time Potter informed Adv D’Souza that she does not want to buy the house and requested him to return her money. It was at this time that Adv Francis requested Marianne to pay the money to Potter, and Marianne accordingly paid the money to Potter in 2009. Adv Francis entered into an acknowledgement that Marianne had paid Potter on his behalf and that he received some money from Marianne and that he handed over the possession of the house to her. There are no single documents stating that Francis has taken back possession of the house,” Adv Nazareth argued.

Adv Nazareth said, “In the case filed by Marianne in 2021, we had stated that the registered address of Nirmala was mentioned as Casa Portuguesa and not the house where Marianne was residing. There is not a single document to show that Nirmala was in possession of the house she claimed to have in her possession nor is there any document showing that Nirmala was staying in that house.”

Adv Nazareth reiterated that his client was residing in the house since 2009 and therefore her possession has to be protected and the case should be decided on merit.

He said Marianne has left the house to undergo medical treatment, but she has not vacated the ‘disputed’ house as all her belongings are there.

Meanwhile the hearing in the matter has now been posted for further hearing on Tuesday at 3.30 pm.