BETTY AYISI MANTE VS ERIC GYIMAH & ANOR

The facts of this case are that the Plaintiff, Betty Ayisi Mante, on 30th November 2017, caused her lawyer to issue a writ of summons against the Defendant, Eric Gyimah, for a declaration of title to the land in dispute, damages for trespass, perpetual injunction to restrain the Defendant and his assigns from developing the land in dispute and removal of all construction works and building materials from the land at the expense of the Defendant.

In the accompanying statement of claim, the Plaintiff asserted, among others, that by a lease dated 25th November 2011, she acquired the land in dispute from the Odai Ntow family of Teshie.

She claimed that she cleared the land and had corner pillars erected around its boundaries.

She further applied for registration of title in the land in dispute and was issued a Land Certificate in 2016. The Plaintiff’s case is that about three (3) months prior to the institution of this action, she noticed that the 1st Defendant was constructing a foundation on her land and reported him to the police.

After the police had inspected the documents of both parties, they advised the 1st Defendant to stop working on the land in dispute.

Despite this warning, the 1st Defendant escalated his acts of trespass.

This caused the Plaintiff to seek the intervention of this Court for justice.

In her witness statement, the Plaintiff exhibited her lease from the Odai Ntow Family as Exhibit “A”. The said Exhibit “A” was dated 12th November 2011 but the accompanying site plan, which was produced during the trial and marked Exhibit “A1”, was not dated.

Plaintiff also exhibited her Land Certificate as Exhibit “B”. There was a slight variation between the land size covered by Exhibit “B” and the land size indicated in Exhibit “A1”; the former being 0. 08 and the latter being 0. 079. A witness statement was also filed on Plaintiff’s behalf by one Ebenezer Anteh who is a Principal Member of the Odai Ntow family.

He also attached a judgment to his witness statement which was marked as Exhibit “C”. The 1st Defendant, on his part, caused his lawyer to file an entry of appearance to the writ on 12th December 2017. Thereafter, the 2nd Defendant, applied and was joined to the suit after which he filed a statement of defence.

In the 2nd Defendant’s statement of defence, he asserted that the 1st Defendant was his son whom he had put in charge of the land in dispute.

He stated that he acquired the land in dispute on 15th August 2003, from the Odai