GH - AGAISHETU YAHYA v JIBREEL ABUBAKAR & ORS

ANTHONY OPPONG, JA:

This is an appeal by the plaintiff/appellant (hereafter referred to simply as appellant) against the judgment of the High Court, Cape Coast, dated 26 th November, 2021. By the Notice of Appeal filed on the same day the judgment of the trial court was delivered, that is, 26 th November, 2021, the appellant 's dissatisfaction of the judgment was limited to that aspect of the judgment where the trial court declared that the land and Star Oil Filling Station at Moree Junction is the property of Abubakar Hamidu

(deceased). That declaration was in favour of the defendants/respondents (also to be referred to simply as Respondents hereafter)

It may be observed that in the suit instituted by the appellant against respondents, the appellant sought declaration that certain properties, eight in number, are the bona fide selfacquired properties of the late Alhaji Mohammed Musah (deceased). These properties were mentioned as:

i. Star Oil Filling Station at Moree Junction

ii. Star Oil Filling Station at Efutu on the Cape CoastTwifo Praso Road

iii. Venus Oil Filling Station at Subri in the Western Region

iv. 2 Houses at Moree

v. One House at Efutu

vi. Nissan PickUp No. CR 300 X

vii. A DAF Petrol Tanker No. CR 1835 12

viii. A Leyland Petrol Tanker No. WR 4339 C.

At page 430 of the Record of Appeal (ROA), Vol. 2, the learned trial judge after hearing the case fully concluded that:

'I hereby therefore enter judgment in favour of the plaintiff in part, the properties listed acquired by Mohammed Musa are declared properties of Mohammed Musa with the exception to (sic) the Moree Junction Filling Station' .

It may be noted therefore that, out of the eight listed properties earlier on mentioned, it was only the one listed as number one, the Star Oil Filling Station at Moree Junction, that was adjudged to be the property of Abubakar Hamidu (deceased) and for that matter the beneficiaries of his estate (the respondents). This part of the decision of the trial court is at the center of the controversy in this appeal. Accordingly, the relief the appellant prayed for, in the Notice of Appeal, therefore, is the setting aside of the decision of the trial court by which the Moree Junction property was declared the property of the late Abubakar Hamidu.

It is instructive to observe that the Respondents neither cross appealed nor contended under Rule 15 of the Court of Appeal Rules, C. I.19, that the judgment of the trial court should be varied. What this