EBUSUAPANYIN JOHN PEPE ABAIDOO vs EBUSUAPANYIN EKOW AWOTWE & ORS
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE BERNARD BENTIL
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This High Court judgment, delivered by His Lordship Justice Bernard Bentil, resolves an interpleader brought by Annan Jackson, Ebusuapanyin of the Kona Royal family of Moree, who claimed that the land known as Bomis belongs to his family and not to the Nana Amanyi Anona family of Moree Alata. The Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor had previously obtained default judgment in 2019 granting expungement of declarations, damages for trespass, recovery of possession, and an injunction, and later secured a writ of possession. Jackson traced ancestral occupation, boundaries, and caretakers and alleged the prior judgment was fraudulent and not on the merits. The court held interpleader is not a quasi-appeal and requires the claimant to prove title on the balance of probabilities. Applying section 12 of the Evidence Act, the court found Jackson adduced no substantial evidence of ownership, rejected counsel’s critique of the earlier judgment, and dismissed the interpleader, awarding costs of GH₵2,500 against the Claimant.
This is an interpleader suit arising out of a claim by the Claimant, Annan Jackson, to piece of land adjudged to be the property of the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor in the substantive suit against the 1st and 3rd Defendants/Judgment Debtors.
The facts giving rise to this instant suit are that by an Amended Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim filed on 21st June, 2017 the Plaintiff/Judgement Creditor claimed against the Defendants in the original suit the following reliefs: a. An order directed against the 2nd Defendant to expunge from their records the statutory declarations of the 1st and 3rd Defendants ploꢀed on their records.
b. Damages for trespass against the 1st and 3rd Defendants.
c. Recovery of possession of all lands covered by the statutory declaration of 1st and 3rd Defendants.
d. Perpetual injunction restraining 1st and 3rd Defendants from having anything to do with Plaintiff’s landed properties.
The claims of the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor were barely contested as the Defendants, despite service of all process on them failed to participate in the trial.
This Court, differently constituted, after the hearing the Plaintiff and the evidence adduced by the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor, entered judgment in favour of the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor on 5th December, 2019 for all the reliefs sought.
The Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor subsequently obtained leave of Court to issue a Writ of Possession in the enforcement of the judgment obtained in his favour whereby he took possession of the land adjudged in his favour.
In the affidavit of interest filed by the Claimant on 14th November, 2022 he deposed that he is the Ebusuapanyin of the Kona Royal family of Moree and the subject maꢀer of this instant suit is known as Bomis and belongs to his Kona royal family thus does not belong to the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor.
He further deposed that the virgin forest of the disputed land was broken many years ago by his ancestors who migrated from Adansi in the Ashanti Region southwards and seꢀled within the environs of Moree.
The disputed land (Bomis) shares boundaries with the Ekon or Queen Ann’s point village and Ekon lagoon as well as the Gulf of Guinea and with Kona family lands all round it including Green Hill lands, Addison square spot, Moree barrier, Moree junction among others.
The land also shares boundaries with Brafo Yaw and Eguase and measures 218. 181 acres or 88. 363 hectares.
The Claimant further deposed that the Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor’s predeces