ARMAR v. GYEMAH
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- SARKODEE-ADOO C.J.
- APALOO
- SIRIBOE JJ.S.C
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This case is an appeal against a Land Court judgment that favored the plaintiff in a land dispute. The plaintiff, representing her family, claimed ownership of a land parcel sold to her father in a public auction. The defendant claimed to have bought the land from an unauthorized family member. The trial court found in favor of the plaintiff, and the appellate court dismissed the appeal, upholding the judgment.
JUDGMENT OF SIRIBOE J.S.C.
Siriboe J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This is an appeal from a judgment of Acolatse J. (as he then was) sitting in the Land Court, Accra, on 30 May 1959, whereby he decided in favour of the plaintiff-respondent (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff).
The case concerns a piece or parcel of land situate at Ahinakwa Road, Adabraka, Accra, more particularly described in the writ of summons and statement of claim respectively, to which the plaintiff on behalf of herself and six other children of their late father Joseph Adjaye Armar, deceased, claims title, £G100 damages and an injunction restraining the defendant, his agents and servants from entering upon it, or in any way whatsoever interfering with the plaintiff's possession and occupation thereof.
The evidence of the plaintiff as amplified by her witnesses, more particularly the plaintiff's first witness, is that the property in question was originally a portion of a large area of land owned by one Tetteh Doi who died intestate some time in 1920. His family, acting by their accredited caretakers (the plaintiff's first witness and the defendant's second witness), sold that portion in dispute to one Dodoo Cobblah as evidenced by a deed of conveyance (exhibit C) dated 6 March 1930, and registered as No. 1147/30.
By another deed (exhibit B) dated 21 May 1935 and registered as No. 548/1935, the said Cobblah, for the consideration therein expressed, conveyed the land in question to one Emma Felicia Tetteh, who in turn, mortgaged it to the United Africa Co., Ltd. under a deed of mortgage dated 14 October 1936, bearing registration No. 726/ 1936. In exercise of the power of the sale contained in the said deed of mortgage, the company caused the land to be sold by public auction, at which sale the plaintiff's father was declared the highest bidder and thereby the purchaser of the land for the sum of £G91.
Following this, the company conveyed the land to him by a deed (exhibit A) dated 15 December 1937, and registered as No. 135/38. He was accordingly put in possession until the time of his death intestate on 27 June 1946, when the land devolved upon the plaintiff and the other children in accordance with Tema (Ga) custom, and they continued the possession per their caretaker.
The present action was instituted in February 1956, because the defendant was seen digging foundations on the land for the purpose of erecting a building thereon in spite of all warnings given