FREDERICK NYAMEKYE VS F.K.A. COMPANY

ADJEI-FRIMPONG, JSC:

On July 6, 2023, the Court of Appeal delivered judgment in this land suit in favour of the Plaintiff/Respondent/Respondent (herein “Plaintiff”). By that, the learned Justices wholly affirmed an earlier decision of the trial High Court which had upheld the Plaintiff’s case and dismissed the counterclaim of the Defendant/Appellant/Appellant (herein “Defendant”). Still unperturbed, the Defendant appeals in this Court.

My Lords would have noticed from the record that but for an argument lately urged upon this Court to depart from its previous decision in another suit affecting the same subject matter, the issues in this appeal would not be unusual. Indeed, if one thing is clear from the record, it is that, this same subject matter has been many times, battled over in our courts over the years. We shall later deal with the issue about this Court’s departure from its previous decision which is of critical importance here, and determine its effect on the fortunes of this appeal. In the meantime, we set out the rival cases and arguments of the parties and how they have fared in the trajectory of this litigation.

According to the Plaintiff, its Managing Director, Frederick Kofi Asare in 1980, took a customary grant of a 95.194-acre land from the Weija Stool whose occupant then was Nii Anto Nyame II. To put the land into real estate development, he went into possession, constructed road layouts, laid pipes for water supply and also erected electricity poles on it. In 1998, he incorporated the Plaintiff Company and made the land its main asset. He requested the Stool to issue a deed of indenture in the name of the incorporated company which was done and dated 16th May 1998. Whilst occupying the land, the Plaintiff took legal actions against various encroachers and won the cases against them. A list of the cases the Plaintiff has won in the courts is pleaded to demonstrate its ownership of the land. It was a portion of this land the Defendant was alleged to have trespassed onto for which the Company took the instant action against him.

According to the Plaintiff, the Defendant purportedly acquired the said portion from the self-same Weija Stool then acting through Nii Kojo Kwame II, as Mankralo and one Nii Acquah Sackey as Stool Secretary in 2002 long after its grant of same. It pleads that the purported grant to the Defendant was a nullity since the Weija Stool had no title in the land to make the subsequent grant to the Defendant.

Besides,