This is an appeal from the judgment of his Honour the Circuit Judge, Mr. Dove, as he then was, when he granted to the [p.211] plaintiff-respondent (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff) a declaration of title to a parcel of land at Kotobabi, together with certain ancillary reliefs. This was on 17 September 1979.
The chief complaint of the defendant-appellant (hereinafter referred to as the defendant) as can be gleaned from his grounds of appeal, may be summarised under two heads, namely: (a) that the judgment was against the weight of the evidence, and (b) that the trial judge faulted in his failure to apply the provisions of section 2 of the Land Development (Protection of Purchasers) Act, 1960 (Act 2), in favour of the defendant.
The facts in this case are not seriously in dispute. The plaintiff based his case on a conveyance he took from Alfred Kateinor Ocansey who in turn had the land conveyed to him from Kwabla Noi Sekan in March 1972. This conveyance was registered as number 606/1972 and it is exhibit A. This land in dispute forms part of Osu stool land as declared by the judgment of the Court of Appeal dated 29 November 1960; and it covers a large tract of land at Maamobi, Kotobabi, and Dzorwulu: Thus the plaintiff traces his root of title from the Osu stool. In a nutshell there was a conveyance of the land from Nii Dowuona V, Osu Mantse, to Kwabla Noi Sekan in 1967 evidencing a customary grant made in 1939 (see exhibit 1); there was then a conveyance (exhibit A) of the same parcel of land in March 1972 from Kwabla Noi Sekan to Alfred Kateinor Ocansey who in turn conveyed the land in June 1972 to Julius Aboagye, the plaintiff. This conveyance is exhibit B registered as No. 1883/1975.
The defendant's case is that he acquired his land in 1976 from the Osu Mantse, Nii Nortei Owuo III, who executed a document for him, but this document was not put in evidence at the trial.
It is interesting to observe on the admission of the defendant himself that he never registered or stamped the document, nor did he make any search at the Lands Department to ascertain whether the land granted him in 1976 was encumbered or not. In spite of all these he proceeded to construct a building on the plot. The defendant in evidence said: '
"I gave the whole thing to a surveyor to do everything for me. He is
called Tetteh. He said he would go to Town Planning and if it is
approved I can start building before I stamp and register the
document. I accompanie
