AFRICA LAKE AMUSEMENTS LIMITED VRS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL & ANOR
2022
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE ANANDA J. AIKINS (MRS)
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Constitutional Law
- Civil Procedure
2022
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Plaintiff, a limited liability company, leased approximately 46.17 acres at the Ghana Trade Fair Centre from the Government of Ghana under a 1975 lease, surrendered the unexpired term in 2015, and obtained a fresh 50-year lease commencing 1 June 2015. The Attorney General was named nominally, and the Lands Commission, the statutory manager of public lands, defended. After the Lands Commission indicated the State’s intention to re-acquire the plaintiff’s leasehold for an integrated, multiple-use development by the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited, the plaintiff sought declarations of leasehold status, quiet enjoyment, and an injunction. Proceeding on written submissions under Order 33 of C.I. 47, the High Court analyzed the lease, Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution, the Lands Act, and precedent including Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III. Finding that public benefit outweighs private lease rights, the court held the State may re-enter and end the lease; the plaintiff’s remedy is prompt, fair and adequate compensation. The suit was dismissed, with each party to bear its own costs.
(1) INTRODUCTION The High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules of 2004 (C. I 47) provides per its Order 33 rules 3 and 4(1) as follows: -“3. The Court may order any question or issue arising in any cause or matter whether of fact or law, or partly of fact and partly of law, and raised by the pleading to be tried before, at or after the trial of the cause or matter and may give directions as to the manner in which the question or issue shall be stated. ”“4(1) In every action, an order made on an application for directions shall, subject to any law, determine the place and mode of the trial; and any order may be varied by a subsequent order of the Court made at or before the trial. ”This Court, after a careful consideration of the pleadings of the parties herein, the issues raised for determination and subsequent motions and also with the above quoted rules in mind, ordered that the trial in this matter be by way of written submissions on the issues for determination.
The parties, in compliance with the orders of the court, duly filed their written arguments and also their affidavit evidence attaching all documents they relied on in their written submissions.
The following discourse is therefore the judgment of the court based on the written submissions.
The 1st defendant is the Attorney General of the Republic of Ghana and the principal legal adviser to the Government of Ghana and is also responsible for the conduct of all civil proceedings on behalf of the State and those against the State.
The 1st defendant is a nominal defendant in this matter.
The 2nd is a body corporate and also a statutory body vested with the authority to manage public lands and any lands vested in the President by the Constitution, 1992, or any other law.
The 2nd defendant is also charged among others with the responsibility to register titles, deeds and other instruments affecting land.
The plaintiff on the 5th day of July 2019, issued a writ and statement of claim against the defendants for the following reliefs: (a) A declaration that plaintiff is the lessee of all that piece or parcel of land described in the schedule hereto; (b) A declaration that plaintiff is entitled to quiet enjoyment of the said land for the unexpired term of the lease.
c) An injunctive order restraining the defendants herein or any person(s) whether natural or juristic, claiming through them fr