JUDGMENT OF AKAINYAH J.
In this action the plaintiffs' claim is for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his servants, workmen or agents from entering upon the piece or parcel of land situate and being at Nkawkaw lorry park known as a petrol pump site measuring 45 feet by 32 feet and for £G600 damages for trespass of which £G101 9s. 9d. represent special damages. The defendant also pleads that he is in possession of the said land as a lessee of the South Kwahu Local Council (to the knowledge of the plaintiffs) and counter-claims for £G600 damages for trespass committed by the plaintiffs on the said land.
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The agreed issues are as follows: (a) whether at the date of the trespass the defendant had a valid lease of the land, the subject-matter of this suit from the South Kwahu Local Council; (b) whether the defendant committed trespass on the plaintiffs' property; and (c) whether the plaintiff-company are entitled to the reliefs sought.
The facts are that about nine or ten years ago, the Kwahu stool, by its state council, made an oral customary grant of the land in dispute to the defendant at a rent of £G9 per annum on condition that as long as he paid the said rent of £G9 every year the defendant would remain on the said land. The defendant entered upon the land and built a one-roomed cement block house and a zinc sheet house thereon for £G800 and commenced trading by selling minerals and petrol supplied to him by A. G. Leventis Co., Ltd. At the request of the defendant, that company installed petrol pumps, an electric generating plant and a compressor on the said land. Four years later, the South Kwahu Local Council was established.
When the said local council was set up, the defendant was requested to produce his lease for inspection and upon being told that the defendant held the land by an oral customary grant, the local council told the defendant to apply for a written lease because the state council— his grantor—had ceased to exist and that it had taken over its assets and liabilities. Consequently the said South Kwahu Local Council granted a lease to the defendant for a term of five years. There is no evidence of the terms and conditions, if any, of the said lease.
When the defendant's said lease was coming to an end by effluxion of time, the plaintiffs told him that they would like to do business with him and therefore he should renew his said lease. In due course, the defendant obtained a new lease (exhibit 2) for a term
