August 13, 1931
DIVISIONAL COURT (COLONIAL)
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Chief Justice Sir George Campbell Deane decided an interpleader arising from an execution-creditor’s attachment of land said to belong to the Stool of Avatime Vane. After other claimants withdrew, only Godwin Tekpo pursued his claim to the Abami parcel described in paragraph 6(d). Tekpo asserted that the land descended from his grandfather, passed father-to-son, was entrusted by his father to his mother Dokwa for him, and was given to him when he was seven; he and his family cultivated a cocoa farm there for more than three decades. The execution-creditor contended the parcel was stool land held by Tekpo’s brother Trongott as stool-father for the current chief; witness John Gefia’s testimony was discounted as unreliable. Applying customary law principles from Lokko v. Konklofi and Abobi v. Solomon, the court held that prolonged, undisturbed occupation implies consent and ripens ownership. Deane therefore declared the land Tekpo’s property and set aside the attachment with costs.
Deane, Chief Justice,
In this interpleader suit the execution-creditor having attached a number of parcels of land as being lands belonging to the Stool of Avatime Vane and so liable to be sold to satisfy the debt of the judgment-debtors, the claimant Godwin Tekpo swore to an affidavit on behalf of himself and a number of other claimants that the lands attached were not stool lands but private property. At the hearing of the case Mr. Amissah who appeared as counsel for the various claimants withdrew all claims save that of Godwin Tekpo which is concerned only with the land described in paragraph 6(d) of the affidavit as follows :-
(d) property described as Avatime Stool property.
All that piece or parcel of land with the cocoa farm thereon situate lying and being at Abami in the Ho District and bounded on the North by the property of Atta Kwabla, on the South by the property of S. Adjei, on the East by the Amedjokpe Hill, and on the West by the property of Moses of Anfoi.
And the question therefore that this Court has to decide is whether the parcel of land above.described is Avatime Stool property or is the property of the claimant.
The claimant's case is that this land which originally belonged to his grandfather, succession in his tribe being from father to son, was given by his father to his mother during the former's lifetime to be held in trust for him when very young and that his mother handed it over to him when he was about 7 years of age. The land ever since then has been in his possession and has been planted as a cocoa plantation by himself his mother and his brother Trongott. Trongott corroborated this story.
The absence of Dokwa the mother from the witness box to support this claim was accounted for on the ground that she was old and unfit to travel.
The case of the execution-creditor was that this parcel of land was in the possession of Trongott as the principal Counsellor or stool-father of the first judgment debtor the present holder of the Stool of Avatime Vane entrusted to his charge as such stool-father and was stogl land. He called one witness John Gefia who is a relative of the claimant to say that he knew the land as stool land when it was in possession of Trongott's father Obinkwa when Obinkwa was Chief of Avatime Vane, but the witness under stress of cross-examination admitted that he was not on good terms with his family as they had accused him of stealing £100 which had been entrusted to him for a certain purpose and after