EKU ALIAS CONDUA III v. ACQUAAH
March 4, 1968
COURT OF APPEAL
CORAM
- AZU CRABBE
- APALOO
- LASSEY JJ.A
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Administrative Law
- Constitutional Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
March 4, 1968
COURT OF APPEAL
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case concerns a jurisdictional challenge to traditional adjudication over headmanship in the Aboasi (Aboadzie) fishing community in the Shama State, Western Region. After Acolatse J. struck out an earlier High Court action and directed the matter to the Shama State Council, the council in May 1958 dismissed the claimants case and declared the opposing party caretaker. The Appeal Commissioner dismissed a subsequent appeal without hearing, following ministerial advice that the subject was not constitutional. On appeal from Djabanor J.s refusal of certiorari, the majority (Azu Crabbe J.A., joined by Lassey J.A.) hold that post-1944 reforms confined State Council jurisdiction to constitutionally defined matters, that the Aboasi headman (a stranger-licensee community leader under a 1917 Jomo stool licence) lacks constitutional status, and that the councils and Appeal Commissioners decisions were nullities. Certiorari issues to quash those decisions; the Divisional Court, Sekondi, is identified as the proper forum for declaratory relief.
JUDGMENT OF AZU CRABBE J.A.
This is an appeal against a decision of Djabanor J. refusing an application for an order of certiorari to remove into the High Court for the purpose of quashing the proceedings and judgment of the Shama State Council dated 19 April 1958 and 3 May 1958, and also the decision of the Appeal Commissioner dated 3 March 1961.
This case has had a very chequered history in our courts, and the facts of the events which culminated into this appeal may be briefly stated: The appellant and the respondent are both members of the fishing community of Aboasi (also referred to as Aboadzie), a village in the Shama State in the Western Region of Ghana. In 1958 a dispute arose between the parties as to the headship of this fishing community, and as to the right to collect tolls from the fishermen who constituted that community. The appellant commenced an action in the High Court, Sekondi, for the determination of the dispute, but the respondent raised an objection to the jurisdiction of the High Court to entertain the action, since, as was contended, the issue in the case raised a question of headship. The respondent's objection was upheld by Acolatse J. who observed that the case was "one for the state council for Shama to determine who had been lawfully appointed headman of the fishing community of Aboasi." The appellant's action was accordingly struck out. Following this exhortation by the learned judge the appellant caused a writ of summons to issue from the Shama State Council against the respondent in which he sought a declaration that he was the headman of the fishing community of Aboasi, and the proper person entitled to collect fishing tolls. After the state council had heard the parties and their witnesses it delivered a judgment on 3 May 1958 whereby it dismissed the appellant's claim and declared the respondent the caretaker of Aboasi. It was emphasised in the judgment that the respondent did not seek to dispute that the appellant was the headman of the village. Thereupon the appellant appealed from this decision to the court of the Appeal Commissioner who, without giving the appellant the opportunity to be heard, dismissed the appeal on 3 March 1961. The dismissal of the appeal was preceded by a letter by the Government Agent, Sekondi, dated 16 July 1959, in which the appellant was informed that the Minister of [p.416] Justice and Local Government had ruled that the subject-matter of his appeal was "not one of a constitutional nat