LETTER TO DELROY CHUCK from MORNA DODD, British-born daughter of Sir Coxsone

Morna Dodd, I am a named beneficiary to my father the late Clement Seymour ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s Estate, noted as the Father of Jamaican Music.

In the 20 years since his death, the honor and contribution that my father has made to the state of Jamaica and world music has been buried with him under the conditions that you have described in your public education campaign titled ‘Ded Lef’..

In his case he did leave a Will showing his intent, but the Executorship of his Will and the Directorship of his premier company Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio Ltd. has been put through an impossible ringer by biased beneficiaries that should be made a national example in your campaign.

I have been reading with great interest and realizations your recent articles on the state of Estates regarding unsustainable administration in Jamaica and reflecting on the horrendous situation that has befallen me as a beneficiary of my father’s Estate in my personal case. I am minded communicating with you, and to copy in the Administrator General’s office and various beneficiaries for them to move forthwith and sell the assets of my father’s estate without delay. This based on the described conclusions of depreciation of value, violence and unsupportable expectations that are all hallmarks of this Estate.

We have been to the Supreme Court on several levels, to first reinstate my brother Clement Dodd Jr. as a beneficiary that also removed his late wife Norma Dodd and her daughter Carol Dodd as Executors but was not linked to his company and so the bias though moved from the Executorship flowered and bloomed in the company. They sought to remove the music assets of the company to Residue, that the recording studio and history must be subdivided, so that I only get rent for the building but must not benefit from the history of the place or my father’s intellectual property. In fact, I cannot even enter the building based on actual violence that I have had to endure to prevent me.

They then sought to subdivide my grandmother Doris Darlington’s share in his Estate and through this process sought to challenge my being his daughter, asking me to prove my DNA for this subdivision after 17 years now s@ll going through this madness, though I don’t have to for the actual Will of my father. This is only a sample of the complete madness that this process has done. So, I am now writing you to highlight you of the great injus@ce that is being done. I don’t know what is sparking this campaign, as I ought to tell you that a large part of the issue is not just The Will in addressing the Jamaican people, but that the lifestyle of the relationships where many separate families are created, is also a major factor.

My mother had the first 3 children for my father and then they went and got married to different persons. My father then had 3 children with his wife and at least 6 other children with individual persons within their marriage. So what is happening is that the wife and her daughter Carol Dodd and their attorneys has been trying to create their expected privilege through a residual clause to say that the bulk of what he intended to give to the beneficiaries is owned by the residue and have reinterpreted his actions by technicalities that are impossible to enact, but now taking 20 years of my life and planning to take me now to my grave.

My brother Clement Dodd Jr, after spending over $100,000 USD in legal fees to die of Cancer as he was about to establish his legal inheritance, own will was considered insufficient and so his share in the Estate, which owes me a massive amount for my financial and moral support is in jeopardy. Judge Bryan Sykes who ruled that both my brother and I should be made Directors of the Company to establish equity was s@ll not followed as my brother who died before he could even establish his directorship died, and I since 2011 have not been allowed to be a director.
The use of the Company Office of Jamaica registra@on to manipulate Estates seems to be another loophole used by lawyers to deny rights in Estates, even if a Will states otherwise. I see that your ar@cle iden@fies an Estate that’s @ed up for $800 Million dollars and so money doesn’t seem to be an issue when extreme bias is in play.
Well right now I am offering my case to be a public case study to Jamaican men especially in the music industry as to what is the result of their hard-earned work to be buried in the grave with them. The issue of mul@ple families must be highlighted as a major cause of disputes. So their Wills, whether 1 page or 15 pages or 0 pages will be put through the legal wringer.
20 Years in and mul@ple court hearings s@ll happening in Jamaica & the UK, I have indicated to the Administrator General and the beneficiaries that the sale of the Estate is the only way forward and so in wri@ng to your office in this campaign and the public statements that I am making in an ‘Open Leder’ to Jamaica and the world, the reason for the sale of one of the most treasured catalogs and history of Jamaican music. I do hope that a Jamaican investor purchases

it, but I also know that the value is more appreciated interna@onally as a world treasure and may be protected more by interna@onal sale.
I have adached a copy of his Will for public view and educa@on, and I hope this helps to educate the na@on about our great inability to establish and secure intergenera@onal wealth in what we as mostly black people have created. I have also copied in a google link to the many ar@cles that have come out in your campaign to educate, so the public may understand the basis and intent of this open leder.