AMANKWANOR v. ASARE
1966
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
- MILLS-ODOI
- BRUCE-LYLE
- SIRIBOE JJ.S.C
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
1966
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiff won a trespass case in the West Akim Abuakwa Local Court regarding a cocoa farm, but the verdict was overturned by the High Court. On appeal, the Supreme Court restored the initial decision, emphasizing the invalidity of an unverified document used by the defendant and the soundness of the trial court's findings based on witnesses and site inspection.
JUDGMENT OF SIRIBOE J.S.C.
Siriboe J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This is an appeal from the judgment of Prempeh J. (as he then was) sitting in the High Court, Accra, in exercise of its appellate jurisdiction from a judgment of the West Akim Abuakwa Local Court, Division 2. For the sake of the sake of convenience the parties will hereafter be referred to simply as the plaintiff and defendant respectively.
The plaintiff's claims before the local court were for: (a) £G100 damages for trespass to a piece of land with cocoa thereon situate at a place called Krodua; (b) an order for account during the 1961-62 cocoa season and (c) ejectment of the defendant, his workmen, agents or servants from the said land.
[p.600]
The facts of the case about which there appears to be very little controversy are these: about 30 years before the date of the trial of this action, one Kwame Adu, an uncle of the plaintiff, acquired from the then Odikro of Krodua called Kwabena Nketia, a piece of land for the purpose of cultivating a cocoa farm. The agreement reached between them was that when the cocoa started to bear fruit the farm was to be divided into three parts, that is to say, one-third for the Odikro and the remaining two-thirds for the plaintiff's predecessor.
After the division had taken place as indicated, the Odikro later sold part of his one-third portion to one Paul Darko, the father of the defendant who has since died, and whose successor the defendant is. Kwame Adu too is dead, and so is his brother, one Kwabena Okyere who succeeded him. It was after the latter's death that the plaintiff was appointed successor.
In the lifetime of Kwabena Okyere, the defendant was alleged to have trespassed onto the former's portion when a complaint was lodged against him before the plaintiff's first witness, Kwame Anin (the present Odikro of Krodua), who had succeeded the late odikro. At an arbitration, the defendant relied on a purchase of the land, and when he was challenged to produce the document evidencing it, he asked for two weeks, but could not do so.
After Okyere's death, the defendant repeated the act of trespass by collecting cocoa from the plaintiff's portion resulting in differences between them which eventually went before the police. Upon investigations, the matter was referred to the plaintiff's first witness for settlement, but the defendant refused to accompany the arbitrators to have the boundary between them demarcated, so the plaintiff br