ERIC TETTEH KWEI v. AMARKAI AMARTEIFIO
2021
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- CECILIA H. SOWAH, JA (PRESIDING)
- ANTHONY OPPONG, JA
- ANGELINA MENSAH HOMIAH, JA
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
2021
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This interlocutory appeal arises from a land dispute in which Amarkai Amarteifio, the defendant/appellant, challenged the High Court’s refusal to grant his own interim injunction. The plaintiff/respondent, representing the Nii Amartey Kotie family of Teshie, claims long occupation since a 1913 acquisition from the Oyoko family of Gyankama and seeks to set aside a Circuit Court, Akropong judgment obtained by Amarteifio against different defendants. The High Court had previously granted the respondent an interlocutory injunction on terms permitting Amarteifio to continue living in a completed building on the disputed 6.39‑acre portion. When Amarteifio sought a counter‑injunction, the trial judge viewed his motion as a rehash of earlier opposition materials and found no evidentiary basis for alleged changed circumstances such as land guards. Applying Supreme Court guidance on the standard for interlocutory injunctions and recognizing the trial court’s discretion, the Court of Appeal held there was no arbitrariness or caprice and dismissed the appeal.
ANTHONY OPPONG, JA
This is an interlocutory appeal against the ruling of the High Court dismissing the application for injunction filed at the High Court by the defendant/appellant (to be referred to as appellant hereafter). The ruling of the High Court dated 27th July 2020 against which this appeal was filed is at pages 294-296 of the record of appeal.
Before proceeding any further, it will not be inapposite to state the respective cases of the plaintiff/respondent (to be referred to as respondent hereafter) and appellant as gleaned from the pleadings and the affidavits.
Respondent claims that his family, Nii Amartey Kotie family of Teshie, has occupied the disputed land since 1913 when the 25.510 acre land was acquired from the Oyoko family of Gyankama.
According to Respondent, as a result of undue interference with the family land coupled with the role the Lands Commission was playing to the detriment of the family’s interest in the land, the family initiated an action at the High Court, Koforidua in 2008. That suit was titled Eric Tetteh Kwei vrs. Lands Commission & Others. The objective of the action was to recover the family land. While the said case was pending, the appellant applied and was joined to the suit on grounds that he had interest in 6.39 acres of the 25.510 acre land. However, for reasons not apparent on the face of the record, the appellant abandoned the suit and rather filed a fresh one at the Circuit Court, Akropong against certain persons other than or excluding the respondent in respect of the 6.39 acre land appellant claimed.
Interestingly, the appellant obtained judgment against those defendants he sued, allegedly, on the blind side of respondent. Nevertheless, the appellant sought to enforce the judgment obtained at the Circuit Court, Akropong against the defendants in that suit and respondent family. The expected resistance put forth by the respondent’s family culminated in the action respondent filed at the High Court seeking not only to set aside the judgment of the circuit court but also to vindicate the family’s title to the 6.39 acre land, among other reliefs.
It may have to be mentioned that because the registrar was playing his legitimate statutory duties in the attempt to enforce the judgment, the respondent in instituting the suit at the High Court against appellant added the registrar as the 2nd defendant and sought as against the registrar an order to restrain him “from taking any further step to execute the afo