AUGUSTA AKWELEY ANNANG v ACCRA METRROPOLITAN ASSEMEBLY & MAJ. (RTD) AWUAH

BY COURT: The Plaintiff by her writ issued on 24 th May, 2007 claimed against the defendants jointly and severally the following reliefs. a) Special damages for i. Cost of buildings destroyed ii. Cost of Valuation. b) General damages c) Perpetual Injunction restraining defendants from carrying on any demolition on Plaintiffs land without due process of law. d) An order that the Plaintiff be granted her building permit by the 1st defendant. The basis of the Plaintiff’s claim is that she is putting up a house on a parcel of land at Okpobi Gonno, Teshie, Accra.

Before she commenced the building she applied for a building permit but she did not receive it. She commenced the said building and almost completed it before it was pulled down by the 1 st Defendant on 29th June, 2002. That before the building was pulled down no notice was pasted on her building except the one written on the building on 28th June, 2002 and that this demolition exercise is in breach of the Local Government Act (1993) Act 462.

The defendants have resisted the Plaintiff’s claim, and pleaded that they acted within the law, as the Plaintiff had no development permit before she commenced her building. The defendants pleaded further that in so far as the Plaintiff did not commence her action within 12 months after the building had been pulled down, the Plaintiff’s action is statute barred, and that the action is a nullity. To this pleading, the Plaintiff pleaded in her reply that she earlier on commenced an action against the Defendants and withdrew it with the leave of the Court, with liberty to reapply before the instant suit was filed, and therefore the action is not statute barred.

The issues that were set down for determination are follows: a) Whether or not the Plaintiff applied for a building permit. b) Whether or not apart from the written notice on Plaintiff’s building on the 28th day of June, 2002 there was any prior notice to plaintiff. c) Whether or not Defendants demolished the property of Plaintiff in accordance with the Local Government Act 1993 (Act 462). d) Whether or not the conduct of the Defendant in demolishing Plaintiff’s property with alleged Writ of Possession is fraudulent and Ultra Vires. e) Whether or not the action is statute barred. f) Any other relevant issues arising out of the Pleadings.

Before dealing with the other issues raised by the pleadings, I will want to resolve issue ‘e’ The defence is that since the demolition is said to have