DUAGBOR AND OTHERS v. AKYEA-DJAMSON

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.A.

The appeal is from the judgment of the Circuit Court, Koforidua delivered on 19 October 1978. It concerned a piece or parcel of land situate at a place called Fintey Dorfor in the Eastern Region. The description of the land as to its boundaries were set out in the writ of summons.

By the said judgment the learned trial judge decreed title in favour of the plaintiff-respondent (hereinafter referred to simply as the plaintiff). He further awarded the plaintiff damages of ¢400 for trespass. The plaintiff was also granted perpetual injunction restraining the appellants (hereinafter referred to as the defendants and co-defendant, respectively), their servants, agents and privies from entering the said land and/or from interfering with the land in any manner whatsoever.

[p.700]

The plaintiff is a legal practitioner and his case was that he purchased the disputed land from one Togbe Kuma Asilevi, head of the Asilevi family of Fintey Dorfor. The land measured 2,024 feet on the north-east, on the south-east 1,029.2 feet, on the south-west 2,024 feet and on the north-west 945.20 feet and covered an area of 46.10 acres. The purchase price was ¢400. A deed of conveyance dated 14 May 1970 was executed by the vendor, Togbe Kuma Asilevi, to evidence the said sale; the deed was duly registered in the Lands Department as No 1630/1970.

The plaintiff is not a native of Fintey Dorfor and he said he got to know of this land through a cousin of his and it was through this cousin that the vendor, Togbe Kuma Asilevi, invited the plaintiff to Fintey Dorfor where he met the vendor and his elders. They informed the plaintiff that they needed money to buy materials for the roofing of a school block and that the elders had decided to sell a portion of their land. The plaintiff having agreed to buy, a surveyor was employed who demarcated the land in dispute for the plaintiff. The plaintiff entered possession after the execution of the deed of conveyance by placing his into caretaker, one Ayisi, on the land. In 1973 this Ayisi reported to the plaintiff about acts of trespass which the defendants had committed on the land. On the receipt of the report, the plaintiff said he visited the land and found that the defendants had unlawfully felled a number of trees which were used in making charcoal for their own benefit.

It must be observed that the action was originally brought against the two defendants but their father Aaron Kodey, who was also the chief of t