Privy Council Rules on Whether a Crown Lease Letter Created a Binding Agreement in Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club Company v Attorney General of the Bahamas

On 20 August 2026, the Privy Council delivered judgment in Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club Company Limited v The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas ([2026] UKPC 30), dismissing the appellant's contention that a January 2020 letter from the Bahamian Department of Lands and Surveys constituted a binding agreement for the grant of a 21-year Crown lease of five acres of land on Paradise Island, adjacent to the oldest lighthouse in the Bahamas. The proposed development would have seen the appellant restore and maintain the lighthouse and construct recreational and entertainment facilities, including a beach club. The Bahamas Investment Authority had in May 2018 agreed to recommend to the responsible Minister that a 21-year Crown lease be approved. On 7 January 2020, the Acting Director of Lands and Surveys wrote to the appellant enclosing a lease and counterpart for execution, asking the appellant to sign, date, seal, witness, and notarise the documents while leaving the date on the first page blank for insertion at the time of the lessor's signature. The central legal issue was whether that letter, enclosing an unsigned lease, itself evidenced a binding agreement between the parties prior to formal execution. Both the first-instance judge and the majority of the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas had concluded it did not. The Privy Council, constituted by Lord Reed, Lord Sales, Lord Hamblen, Lord Burrows, and Lord Doherty, with the judgment delivered by Lord Hamblen, dismissed the appeal and upheld that conclusion. The appellant was instructed by Simons Muirhead Burton LLP, with counsel including Damian Gomez KC, Sidney Cambridge, and Damian Falkowski. The respondent was instructed by , with counsel Rowan Pennington-Benton and Kirkland Mackay.