2016
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The heirs of Atta Kwame filed a case against the executors of Konadu Yiadom Boakye's estate over the ground floor of a building in Kumasi. The trial court ruled for the plaintiffs, enforced their ownership, and denied the defendants' counterclaims. On appeal, the defendants raised procedural issues and challenged the evidence, but the appellate court found no errors in the trial court's decision. It affirmed the ruling that the ground floor belonged to the plaintiffs based on reliable evidence and dismissed the defendants' appeal.
JUDGEMENT
DOMAKYAAREH (MRS),J. A.
This is an appeal from the judgment of the High Court, Kumasi dated 4th February 2014 which went in favour of the plaintiffs therein.
The substrata of the appeal lay in the Estate of one Konadu Yiadom Boakye. The plaintiffs contested some devise in the Will of the deceased Konadu Yiadom Boakye.
The case of the plaintiffs/respondents as deduced from the Record of Appeal is that:
The plaintiffs/respondents are siblings, their father being the late Atta Kwame. They instituted the suit at the High Court on behalf of themselves and on behalf of the other children of the late Atta Kwame. The defendants/appellants are the Executors of one late Konadu Yiadom Bonsu. The late Konadu Yiadom Bonsu was the nephew (maternal) of the late Atta Kwame, father of the plaintiffs/respondents.
The plaintiffs’/respondents’ case is that their father, the late Atta Kwame acquired plot No. 65 Block C, Anomangye-Kumasi and constructed the ground floor of the building on the land for the plaintiffs/respondents. The plaintiffs/respondents state that upon the demise of their father, the late Konadu Yiadom Bonsu succeeded him. That the late Atta Kwame, in his lifetime, directed his nephew, Konadu Yiadom Bonsu who he had appointed as caretaker of his property to convey the whole ground floor to his children after his death. After the death of Atta Kwame, Konadu Yiadom Bonsu added two more floors to the building. The plaintiffs averred that notwithstanding the fact that the late Konadu Yiadom Bonsu, promised during his lifetime in the presence of the Odikro of Anomangye to hand over the ground floor to the plaintiffs and their siblings for which he demanded and they paid an amount of ¢10,000,000.00 old Cedis to enable Konadu Yiadom Bonsu prepare documentation reflecting their interest in respect of the property, he failed to fulfill his promise. The plaintiffs pleaded fraud and asserted that instead, the late Konadu Yiadom Bonsu left a Will in which he devised three rooms on the first floor to the plaintiffs and their siblings while he devised the ground floor of the house, which is for the plaintiffs to his family. Dissatisfied with this state of affairs, the plaintiff instituted an action against the defendants, Executors of the Estate of the late
Konadu Yiadom Bonsu on 7th May 2007, seeking four reliefs namely:-
a) A declaration that ownership to the ground floor of H/No. Plot 65 Block C. A. Anomangye-Kumasi is vested in the plaintiffs
b) Reco