EVELYN NYARKOA OBENG & ORS v. DAOUD ANUM YEMOH
July 29, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- His Lordship Justice Kweku T. Ackaah-Boafo
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
July 29, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This High Court judgment, authored by His Lordship Justice Kweku T. Ackaah-Boafo, concerns Victoria Solomon and Evelyn Nyarkoa Obeng’s purchase of four plots from a former Member of Parliament who portrayed himself as lawful attorney for the Anum Yemoh family. Despite paying GH ,500 per plot and receiving indentures and receipts, the Plaintiffs were repeatedly prevented by land guards from developing the properties at Lakeside Estates and replacement sites at New Legon Annex. The Court, applying principles of quiet enjoyment and vacant possession, found the Defendant breached the contract by failing to deliver possession. Guided by Supreme Court precedent (MULLER), the Court measured damages at current value, rejecting non-comparable RockHill valuations, and awarded GH ,000 per plot (GH ,000 total) plus interest from demand at commercial rates. It declined unproven specific expenditure claims but granted GH ,000 for development work, nominal damages of GH ,000, and costs of GH ,000, proceeding despite the Defendant’s absence after due service.
JUDGEMENT
Introduction:
[1] The Plaintiffs, Victoria Solomon and Evelyn Nyarkoa Obeng are mother and daughter respectively. According to the pleadings the Defendant is a former Honourable member of Ghana’s Parliament and he represented the Obom-Domeabra Constituency in the Greater Accra Region. The Plaintiffs contend that sometime in or about the year 2000 they bought four plots of land (two each) situate at Lakeside Estates at Adenta in Accra from the Defendant for GH¢4,500 per plot. According to the Plaintiffs they believed the Defendant had capacity and authority to deal with them as the Lawful Attorney of the Anum Yemo family based on the representations he made to them. The Plaintiffs contend that after paying the money for the plots of land they deposited quarry stones and sand on the land to commence construction but they were confronted by land guards who drove them away on the grounds that their Vendor is not the owner of the land.
[2] It is the case of the Plaintiffs that they informed the Defendant and he apologized to them and “gave them one new plot each in October 2013 at New Legon Annex, Frafraha within the Adenta Municipality as part replacement pending the demarcation of two additional plots”. The 1st Plaintiff says she erected a fence wall around the two plots but they were demolished by another group of land guards who claimed that the Defendant had no land there to sell to them. It is the further case of the Plaintiffs that the Defendant after becoming aware again gave them “another two adjacent plots (one each) at another location at New Legon Annex in the Adenta Municipality in July 2014 but they again lost the land through the activities of land guards of opposing claimants of the land.
[3] It is the further case of the Plaintiffs that once it became obvious that the Defendant could not give them any secured land they requested for the “refund of their monies at the current value of lands within the Lakeside Estates or New Legon Annex areas, but the Defendant failed to make the refunds after several promises to do so”.
[4] The issues for my resolution in this case are: whether the Plaintiffs are entitled to the current replacement value of the plots of land paid by them at New Legon Annex area or Lakeside Estates at Adenta and whether the Plaintiffs are entitled to the other reliefs endorsed on their writ of summons.
[5] Having failed to refund the monies paid for the plots of land the Plaintiffs commenced this action