JUDGMENT OF FRANCOIS J.A.
This is an appeal from the decision of circuit judge Isaac Amuah, Esq., sustaining the plaintiffs' (hereafter called the respondents) claim for a declaration of title and recovery of possession of a parcel of land at Abossey Okai, Accra. The issue for determination was the simple but frequently recurring one of competing titles.
The respondents traced their title to the Akumajay Mantse, Nii Ayikai II whose stool owned the area in Abossey Okai described as "Opete Kpakpo" where the land in dispute was situated. This land had [p.332] been adjudged to belong to the Akumajay stool by a decision of the Privy Council in a suit entitled Nii Abossey Okai v. Nii Ayikai II (1950) 12 W.A.C.A. 37. The respondents traced their root of title as follows:
(1) Sale in 1959 by Nii Ayikai II to one Amua Sekyi (exhibit A);
(2) Sale in 1960 by Amua Sekyi to the respondents' mother, Anyema Korle (exhibit B);
(3) Separate gifts of the land by Anyema Korle to her children, the respondents, in 1965 (exhibits C and D).
It was the defendant's (hereafter called the appellant) case that her title, whose root was established in 1923 from Nii Abossey Okai, then acting Akumajay Mantse, and registered in the Deeds Registry as No. 1812/1960 on 15 September 1960, gave her priority over the respondents whose document from Nii Ayikai II was registered on 30 December 1960, some three months after. It was the appellant's further case that though the respondents derived title from the substantive Akumajay Mantse, since her grantor was the accredited caretaker of Akumajay stool lands with power of alienation over them and was the acting Akumajay Mantse at the time of the grant, her title was not only competent but superseded any others.
The learned circuit judge was called upon to decide which of the rival stool occupants could alienate the land subject-matter of dispute at the respective dates they purported to do so. This entailed the consideration of any powers of alienation the appellant's grantor had over land in Abossey Okai in 1923. It also involved scrutiny of Nii Abossey Okai's credentials as acting Akumajay Mantse in 1923 and his rights as a caretaker. The learned circuit judge had also to consider Nii Ayikai II's position in 1959 when he purported to sell to Amua Sekyi. Founding himself on the authority of Nii Abossey Okai v. Nii Ayikai II (supra), the circuit judge held that at the material date of the appellant's grant, that is, in 1923, Nii Abossey
