BOTCHWAY v. OKINE

JUDGMENT OF OSEI-HWERE J.A.

Osei-Hwere J.A. delivered the first judgment at the invitation of Abban J.A. The legal battle which was fought in the court below was essentially between the plaintiff-appellant (hereinafter to be designated as the plaintiff). And the co-defendant-respondent (also to be designated as the co-defendant). Although the defendant-respondent (to be referred to as the defendant) was initially drawn into the contest he faded out after he had filed his defence.

By his writ of summons the plaintiff sued the defendant and claimed against him certain reliefs ranging from a declaration of title, through recovery of ¢449 as arrears of rent and up to perpetual injunction. It was averred by the plaintiff in his statement of claim that he acquired a parcel of land by customary grant in 1963 for the Osu stool then occupied by Nii Dowuona V and that in 1967 he obtained a formal deed of conveyance evidencing the coustomary grants from the said stool. The conveyance was duly stamped and registered in the Deeds Registry as No. 147/1974 on 23 January 1974. In 1964 he let the said land to the defendant who later fell into arrears of rent. His complaint was also that the defendant had refused to vacate his land in spite of repeated notices to him to do so. He identified the land in the schedule of his statement of claim.

Although the defendant essayed to resist the claims those matters he pleaded in traverse were necessarily consigned to the lumber room when he failed to appear in court to defend them. Be that as it may, the co-defendant joined the suit and threw down the gauntlet at the plaintiff. The defence which he filed specifically denied paragraphs (1), (2), (3) and (4) of the statement of claim and put the plaintiff to strict proof of the allegations contained in those paragraphs. Paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of his defence were pertinent, and I quote them hereunder:

“(2) In further answer to paragraph (2), the co-defendant says that he derives his title from Nii Dowuona IV, the land having been granted to the co-defendant by deed of conveyance dated 13 April 1961, and registered as No. 1827/1975. The co-defendant further derives title from one Owusu Ansah by deed of conveyance dated 31 December 1962. The plaintiff’s alleged grant by Nii Dowuona V to him is therefore invalid and cannot confer any valid title to the land on the plaintiff.

[p.6]

(3) In answer to paragraphs (5) of the statement of claim the co-defendant says that the plainti