2022
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Defendants appealed to the Supreme Court of Ghana from a majority Court of Appeal judgment that awarded title and related reliefs over Boi lands to the Graham family, whose claim traced to the will of their great-grandmother, Bergina Briandt. The Supreme Court, per Dotse JSC, undertook a re-hearing, examined the Plaintiffs' testamentary chain (Exhibit B), Letters of Administration and Vesting Assent (Exhibit C), land title registration (GA 31351), boundary witnesses, and a composite plan prepared by the Lands Commission. It rejected the High Courts fraud finding, criticizing the forensic thumbprint methodology and emphasizing Section 13(1) of the Evidence Decree. The Court found Defendants identity-of-land evidence uncertain, highlighted their boundary admissions (Exhibit P), and credited Plaintiffs overt acts of possession. It dismissed the appeal, affirmed the Court of Appeal majority, restored struck witness-statement paragraphs, clarified the land boundaries per Exhibit CE, and endorsed a practice direction to order composite plans in land cases.
DOTSE JSC:-
The central theme of the appeal by the Defendants/Respondents/Appellants, hereafter simply referred to as the Defendants, against the Court of Appeal (majority) judgment dated 31st January 2019 is the effect of the root of title of the Plaintiffs/Appellants/Respondents, hereafter, Plaintiffs whose title had been anchored on the will of their predecessor Bergina Briandt tendered and marked in these proceedings as Exhibit B. Indeed the second ground of appeal formulated by the Defendants reads as follows:-
“The majority with all due respect erred when they held that the Will of Plaintiff’s great grandmother is the proof of root of title provided by the Plaintiffs in respect of the disputed land.”
As a result we deem it quite expedient to go back to the basic principles upon which Wills are written and executed to offer us some understanding about the dispositions in Exhibit B concerning the land in dispute.
Prof. W. C. Ekow Daniels, writing in his invaluable book “The Law on Family Relations in Ghana” page 434 offered the following definition and history of Wills when he stated thus:-
(b)”Definition: Blackstone defines a “Will as the legal declaration of a man’s intention, which he wills to be performed after his death. According to Maine,“A Will or testament is an instrument by which the devolution of inheritance is prescribed.”A more comprehensive definition was given by Jarman, an English author, as follows:-
“A Will is an instrument by which a person makes disposition of his property to take effect after his decease, and which is, in its own nature, ambulatory and revocable during his lifetime”. Emphasis
The learned and distinguished author, continued on the same page 434 as follows:-
(c)“History of Wills: Testaments are of very high antiquity. In the seventh century, we are told that the jurists of that period proffered the view that “the power of Testation itself is of Natural Law, that it is a right conferred by the Law of Nature.” Atkinson,the learned American author on Wills wrote as follows:- “In 2548 B.C, we find an Egyptian executing an instrument on papyrus, witnessed by 2 Scribes, settling certain property upon his wife, and appointing a guardian for his infant children.” Testaments were in use among the ancient Hebrews, and Salon was the first legislator who introduced a somewhat qualified privilege of testamentary disposition among the Greeks. In Rome, Wills were unknown until the laws of the Twelve Tables were compiled ar