ARMAR NMAI BOI & ORS v. ADJETEY ADJEI & ORS

J U D G M E N T

SOPHIA ADINYIRA (MRS.) JSC:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Accra dated 16 February2012. The Plaintiffs/Respondent /Respondent (Plaintiffs), began an action before The High Court Accra on 17 May 2007, against the Defendants/Appellants/Appellants (Defendants) jointly and severally for the following reliefs:

A declaration of title to all that piece or parcel of land situate lying and being at North Teshie and bounded on the North by one Mr. A. Laryea’s land measuring 900 feet more or less on the South by A. Kanton’s land measuring 900 feet more or less on the East by the Vendor’s land measuring 400 feet more or less and on the Westby the Vendor’s landmeasuring 900 feet more or less and covering an approximate area of 8.2 Acres.

Recovery of possession

Damages for trespass

Perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, their servants, agents, workmen and all those claiming through them from entering on to the land in dispute and carrying out any construction works on the land or interfering with the land in dispute in any manner whatsoever.

The Plaintiffs by their pleadings claimed that the land in dispute was acquired in their names by their late father in 1961 from Nii Klu Din the then acting Mankrado of Teshie and an indenture evidencing the sale was executed and registered as No. 3825/1985. They claimed they entered into possession and exercised acts of ownership over the land by fixing corner pillars and constantly weeding it and warding off trespassers.

The Plaintiffs stated further that they applied for and obtained a Land Title Certificate from the Lands Title Registry in 2007. They allege the Defendants have wrongfully entered portions of the land and have put up unauthorized structures and have refused to quit.

The Defendants denied the claim and countered that the land could not have been purchased in 1961 in the Plaintiffs’ name as two of them were minors and one was unborn then. The Defendants claimed they acquired their lands from the Tsie We Family of the Kle Musum Quarter and they have been in undisturbed possession for periods over 12 years as a result the Plaintiff action was not maintainable by reason of laches and acquiescence and the Limitation Decree, NRCD 54.They also pleaded that the Land Title Certificate was obtained by fraud and mistake.

The Plaintiffs in their Reply filed on 12 December 2007 stated in paragraph 4 that their late father sued the Defendants before the elders of t