JUDGMENT

KULENDI JSC:

INTRODUCTION:

1. We have before us an appeal against the concurrent judgment of the Court of Appeal dated the 23rd of November, 2023 which said judgment affirmed the earlier decision of the High Court delivered on the 29th of July, 2021.

APPELLANT’S CASE:

1. The suit on which this appeal is predicated was commenced by the Plaintiff/Appellant/Appellant (hereinafter referred to as the Appellant) on the 17th of December, 1996 through the issuance of a Writ of Summons at the High Court, Cape Coast against the Defendant/Respondent/Respondent (hereinafter referred to as the Respondent), seeking the reliefs endorsed thereon.

2. In the said writ, the Appellant asserted that the suit was commenced in his representative capacity as the head of the Kona Family of the Dubua Ando clan of Breman Essiam. This clan, he averred, comprised several other families including an Nsona Family, which he alleged, was headed by the Respondent.

3. Consistent with the foregoing, the Appellant averred that these two families had, at all material times, been members of the same wider Dubua Ando clan of Breman Essiam, enjoying equal rights, liabilities and obligations. Significantly, the Appellant contended that when it became necessary for the wider clan to take stock of clan heirlooms and stool properties, both the Kona and Nsona families came together in the presence of the police and executed documents evidencing the stock taken.

4. The Appellant further asserted that the Respondent’s family has however, as a result of greed, denied the participation of the Appellant’s family in the sharing of the Dubua Ando clan properties and in the general administration of the affairs of the clan. Additionally, the Appellant alleged that the Respondent mounted oppressive attacks against the Appellant’s family and at the time of the commencement of the suit, he was personally being harassed to vacate the house he lived in because the said house belonged to the ancestors of the Respondent’s family.

5. Appellant prayed the court for the following reliefs:

1. A declaration that the Nsona and Kona families of the Dubua Andoh Clan of Breman Essiam, Benin, Bedum, etc are all members of the same clan.

2. Declaration that both families of the said Dubua Andoh Clan enjoy equal rights over immovable, movable and other legal, equitable and customary rights that the Dubua Andoh clan gives to all its members

3. *An order for the