COMFORT ABLA AGBOSU v. CAPTAIN CHARLES BOAFO
1999
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- FORSTER, J.A. (PRESIDING)
- BENIN, J.A.
- AFREH, J.A
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
- Tort Law
1999
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal of Ghana reviewed an appeal by a retired Ghana Army officer who bought a property at Gbejirmanya–Somanya from the late Seth Kwabla Agbosu. The plaintiff, Agbosu’s partner, sued for a declaration of title, possession, trespass, and injunction, asserting joint acquisition of the plot and construction of a six-room house with her children’s resources and with the deceased’s consent. Despite documents in Agbosu’s name, she claimed this was for convenience and that he symbolically ratified her and the children’s rights by accepting schnapps and designating the building site. The High Court found for the plaintiff, declaring the sale null and void and treating the defendant’s possession as trespass. On appeal, Benin, J.A., clarified that civil land claims are proven on the balance of probabilities, upheld reliance on competent witnesses including relatives with personal knowledge, rejected apportionment not pleaded, and held that a purchaser on notice who relies on registry searches cannot acquire indefeasible title. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal with costs, affirming the High Court.
JUDGMENT
BENIN, J.A.:
This is an appeal from the decision of the High Court, Koforidua entered in favour of the plaintiff, who sued for herself and on behalf of her children who she had by the late Seth Kwabla Agbosu of Battor–Aveyime. The defendant is a retired officer of the Ghana Army. The dispute is over a piece of land with building thereon situate at Gbejirmanya - Somanya. There is no dispute about the identity of the property in question. The plaintiff sued for declaration of title, recovery of possession, damages for trespass and perpetual injunction against the defendant. Her grounds for these claims were pleaded in a statement of claim in which she averred that she was joint purchaser of the land with her late husband S. K. Agbosu (hereinafter referred to as the deceased). That it was she and her children, with the consent of the deceased, who put up a six room house on the land. That against their protest (that is plaintiff and her children), the deceased sold the property to the defendant. The deceased sued the children over this property at the High Court but later discontinued same. The defendant has since January, 1985 entered the land to exercise acts of ownership. Hence this action. For his part, the defendant averred that he bought this property from the deceased after he had caused proper search to be made at the Lands Registry, Koforidua which search disclosed the deceased to be owner thereof free from any encumbrance. That he paid the purchase price and had documents duly registered in his name. That it was only after the purchase was completed that the plaintiff and her children protested and they entered the land to harvest food crops there. He denied knowledge of the litigation between the deceased and his children over this property. He averred that as a wealthy man, deceased would not buy land with money provided by the plaintiff. That he had acquired a legal title to the property and plaintiffs were estopped from denying that.
In her reply plaintiff averred that the documents on the property bore the name of the deceased alone, but explained this was done purely out of convenience. That after the sale the deceased was confronted and he apologised for his acts and offered to pay for the land and building but she rejected the offer and insisted on her right. That the deceased lost his wealth and was dependent to a large extent on the plaintiff.
The issues agreed upon for hearing were:
(1) Whether or not the defendant purchased