BOATENG ALIAS BEYEDEN v. ADJEI AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF AKUFO-ADDO J.S.C.

The plaintiffs as "joint successors" of one Kwasi Baah, brought an action in the New Juaben Local Court against the defendant, the Nsenifuorhene of Koforidua, claiming a declaration that certain properties enumerated in the writ of summons were the self-acquired properties of the said Kwasi Baah and not of the Nsenifuor stool of New Juaben of which the defendant was the occupant, and that they, the plaintiffs, were entitled to the possession of these properties.

The brief background history to this litigation is as follows: The Nsenifuor stool family is a large family in New Juaben and owns a stool the occupant of which is one of the principal elders of the paramount stool of New Juaben. This family has its seat at Koforidua which is also the seat of the paramount stool, and has branches at Effiduasi and Gyegyeti. The Effiduasi branch calls itself the Agona family of Effiduasi and it is the branch to which the plaintiffs and the late Kwasi Baah aforesaid belong Kwasi Adei (the first plaintiff was a brother and the successor of the said Kwasi Baah, and Yaw Kobi (the second plaintiff) is the head of the Effiduasi branch. Kwasi Baah was by local standards a well-to-do person who acquired a good deal of property by his own exertions. About 25 years ago when the Nsenifuor stool fell vacant, the said Kwasi Baah was invited by the Nsenifuor family to accept the [p.287] occupancy of the stool. He accepted the invitation, and he occupied the stool for about twenty years. He died in February 1957 and the first plaintiff Kwasi Adei was then elected to occupy the stool. He occupied the stool for about three weeks and resigned before the final ceremonies for his installation had been performed, because, in his own words, he "chose to retain or inherit the deceased's private properties." The first plaintiff was thereafter elected the successor of Kwasi Baah by Kwasi Baah's immediate family (i.e. the Effiduasi branch). Another member of the Nsenifuor family, Kwabena Gyang, was placed on the stool, but was destooled after about two-and-a-half years, and defendant was enstooled in his place.

Meanwhile, the properties of Kwasi Baah had passed through Kwabena Gyang to the defendant who claimed to be entitled to them on the ground that these properties, for reasons that will be discussed later, had become stool properties. The plaintiffs, on the other hand, claimed that since the properties were the self-acquired properties of Kwasi Baah, th