AHIABLE ALIAS VIVOR AND OTHERS v. DOSU AND OTHERS

The case concerns competing claims to cassava crops grown on land at Avetorforkli. The plaintiffs sued in the Dzodze Local Court for N¢165, alleging the defendants trespassed, uprooted, and sold cassava they had cultivated. The first defendant asserted personal cultivation and a lineage-based claim to the land through predecessors including Gbidimi, Ege, Gbaga, Lawoe, Eha Dorpenyui, Hunugbo Dosu, and Dzivenu, and described prior suits in Wheto Native Court B and criminal complaints. The magistrate found the evidence evenly balanced, inspected the farm, and noted a recent judgment (exhibit C) recognizing the first plaintiff as landowner by grant from the first defendant, but nonetheless non-suited the plaintiffs. On appeal, Justice Sowah reversed, relying on the presumption that a landowner owns items upon the land. The defendants appealed to the Court of Appeal. Azu Crabbe J.A., with Lassey J.A. and Jiagge J.A. concurring, held that cassava as fructus industriales are goods, and absent evidence of divestment or permission, ownership follows the land; the appeal was dismissed.