CHANDIRAM AND ANOTHER v. GHANA COMMERCIAL BANK
1960
CORAM
- COR. LORD TUCKER
- LORD JENKINS,
- LORD MORRIS OF BORTH-Y-GEST
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
1960
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The dispute revolves around conflicting claims over a property in Accra after an execution sale. The initial purchaser obtained favorable judgments from both the trial court and Court of Appeal, affirming that the purchaser stepped into the shoes of the debtor and acquired his interest subject to any existing encumbrances. The Privy Council determined that the Ghana Bank, though having paid off an equitable mortgage to Barclays, must account for rents received and could chart a clear course by enforcing the mortgage for determining amounts owed. The court order was set aside, new directions were proposed for payments and possession, ensuring no unjust enrichment occurred for the purchaser.
JUDGMENT OF LORD JENKINS
Lord Jenkins delivered the judgment of the Board: This case concerns competing interests in certain real property at Accra, the rival claimants being Ghana Commercial Bank, formerly the Bank of the Gold Coast, defendants in the action and now appellants (hereinafter called "the Ghana Bank"), who claim to be mortgagees of the property; and D. T. Chandiram, plaintiff in the action and now respondent (hereinafter called "the purchaser"), who claims to have bought the property at an execution sale free from the alleged mortgage. Also concerned in the litigation is one J. Mensah (hereinafter called "the tenant") who, in his capacity as Manager of St. John's Grammar School at Accra, was in possession of the property as tenant at the date of the execution sale, but who thenceforth, according to the purchaser, became a trespasser, by refusing to attorn tenant to the purchaser and insisting on paying his rent (£G75 per month) to the Ghana Bank, who demanded such payment on the strength of the alleged mortgage. The purchaser accordingly joined the tenant as a defendant along with the Ghana Bank, and he has been made a respondent in the present appeal but was not represented at the hearing before their Lordships.
The action was brought by the purchaser as plaintiff in the Land Court at Accra claiming against both defendants jointly and severally:-
"(a) A declaration of his title of ownership to the said premises;
(b) £G500 general damages for trespass;
(c) £G2,025 as mesne profits at the rate of £G75 a month as from the 16th April, 1955" (the date of the execution sale) "to the 15th September, 1956" (the end of the last whole month prior to the issue of the writ on the 26th September, 1956) "and any further sums of money by way of mesne profits that will have accrued up to the date of judgment.
(d) Recovery of possession."
The case was tried in the Land Court before Ollennu, J., who by a judgment and decree dated 3rd September 1957, granted the purchaser the relief claimed (save that he reduced the claim for damages for trespass to £G100) with costs. He assessed the mesne profits at £G75 per month from the 16th April, 1955 to 15th September, 1957 and found them to amount to £G2,925; and he directed that the recovery of possession should take effect from the 15th September 1957.
From that judgment and decree both defendants appealed to the Court of Appeal of Ghana (Korsah, C.J., van Lare and Granville Sharp, JJ.A.) who by a judgment an