DARKO v. AFFRIM AND OTHERS
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- OLLENNU
- AKAINYAH
- BRUCE-LYLE JJ.S.C
Areas of Law
- Property Law
- Civil Procedure
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The appeal was dismissed because the plaintiff failed to establish the identity of the land he claimed, failed to prove possession of the land, and the trial judge's decision was supported by the preponderance of evidence.
JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.S.C.
Ollennu J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This is an appeal from a judgment of Siriboe J., as he then was, wherein he dismissed a claim by the appellant, hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff, to declaration of title, damages for trespass to and recovery of possession of two pieces or parcels of land situate at Awotrodum, Ahamansu in the Buem-Krachi District.
The plaintiff pleaded that a company of 29 persons including his father contributed money to buy a large area of land and apportioned it among themselves according to their respective contributions; that the two portions of land claimed by him together formed the share given to his father, and the same have devolved upon him as successor, his father having died intestate. He pleaded further that he had been dispossessed of the land by the defendants.
The defence denied the plaintiff’s averments that the large area of land was purchased by a company of 29 persons, or that the plaintiff's father was entitled to two portions or any portion of the large area by right of purchase or contribution. They denied that the plaintiff was entitled to any portion of land or that he had wrongfully been dispossessed of any portion of the land to which he is lawfully entitled. The co-defendant further pleaded that in so far as the claim is in respect of a farm occupied by him, he is a purchaser of the lands from M. L. Darko who originally acquired the larger area, and that the plaintiff has never been in possession of those farms.
[p.38]
Evidence was led by both sides to show that the large area of land of which the two pieces claimed by the plaintiff form portions, was purchased by one M. L. Darko an uncle of the plaintiff. But while the plaintiff alleged that M. L. Darko made the purchase as a representative of a company of 29 including his, the plaintiff's father, the defence maintained that M. L. Darko made the purchase in his individual and not in any representative capacity. And although it was not pleaded, the defence led evidence which was quite conclusive that the plaintiff's father made a cocoa farm on a portion of the land, that that portion was a gift made to him by his brother the said M. L. Darko, and that the plaintiff's father subsequently, that is in 1942, sold that farm to one Olaga, and thereupon removed to Golokwati and there lived and cultivated yams and other food crops until his death in 1946.
The trial judge held, among other things, that the plai