JUDGMENT OF ANIN J.A.
Anin J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The plaintiff-appellant (hereinafter called the plaintiff) claimed title, an order for injunction and general damages for trespass in respect of a plot of land at Lartebiokorshie, Zabon Zongo, Accra, more particularly described in his writ of summons. He claimed to have “bought this land from Emma and Helena Mills, the joint head of the Abloh Mills [family] the original owners under an indenture dated 26 March 1955 and registered in the Deeds Registry as No.2338 of 1955” (vide paragraph (2) of the statement of claim) and then entered into possession and exercised acts of ownership over the land soon after purchasing it. He alleged that the defendant-respondent (hereinafter called the defendant) has since 1965 been committing acts of trespass over his said land, and has removed his pillars and blocks on the land and even erected a wall on the land.
The defendant disputed the plaintiff’s claim, and asserted title to the identical land through a purchase from the Sempe Mantse in two lots under a first indenture dated 31 August 1964 which was registered in the Deeds Registry No. 371/1966, and a second indenture of 17 November 1964 which was still in the process of registration at the date of the action. He denied having committed any acts of trespass; and rather made [p.111] counter allegations of trespass over his land against the plaintiff. In his counterclaim, he claimed the sum of £G180 12s. 9d. being the value of his articles allegedly destroyed by the plaintiff on the land.
After the testimony of both parties and their witnesses in support of their respective cases, the learned circuit judge dismissed the plaintiff's claim and entered judgment for the defendant and awarded him the full amount claimed in his counterclaim. The ratio decidendi of the judgment was that the plaintiff had failed to discharge the onus probandi incumbent on him.
In this appeal, learned counsel for the plaintiff has strongly criticised the judgment of the court below on a number of grounds, the gravamen of his argument being that the judgment is overwhelmingly against the weight of evidence. He drew our attention to the unchallenged evidence on record of the plaintiff's root of title, traced to a gift of a larger tract of stool land embodying the disputed land, made by the James Town stool to the plaintiff's vendors' father and predecessor-in-title, one Joseph Ablorh Mills, who was himself an elder and a
