GEORGE A. SARPONG VS WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY COLEGE & ORS

I preface this judgment with the words of John Milton, a 17th century poetwho served under Oliver Cromwell in England, in his epic work, ParadiseLost. He writes: “They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand, the gateWith dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and Providence their guide; They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way. ”This sums up the tragedy of the case of the Plaintiff whose dream of an Edenlike environment has been shattered by what he claims to be the activities ofthe defendants.

The plaintiff, a former contract law lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, who in the dying embers of his glittering career in the academia wasthe director of the Ghana School of Law, on the 3rd of July, 2012 conceivedand birthed the writ at the of the High Court claiming the following reliefs: a. An order to compel the Defendants to fulfill their promise made to the Plaintiff to relocate and compensate Plaintiff for the nuisance causePlaintiff.

b. Damages for nuisance, invasion of privacy, deceit and/or fraud c. Such further or other reliefs as in the circumstance may appear just, in particular, an order directed at Defendants to abate the nuisance andperpetual injunction restraining the Defendants whether bythemselves, servants, agents, privies, whomsoever from interferingwith Plaintiff and his family’s quite enjoyment of the land.

The basis of the prayer of plaintiff is adequately captured in the statement ofclaim that accompanied the filing of the writ.

Plaintiff claims to be theowner of a seven bedroom property at Haatso Agbogba, Accra, a house hemove into occupation in 2007 where he enjoyed total privacy more so as thearea had been zoned for residential purposes.

That this reminiscent paradiseenvironment began to shake when just after a few years of occupation of thisdream property the 1st defendant institution began construction of a largeclassroom block complex behind the wall in front of plaintiff’s housethereby blocking access to a portion of the property of plaintiff.

This was tobe the commencement of erosion of the joy and privacy from his property as1st defendant then purchased an adjoining property, which had been aresidential house, demolished same and started the construction of a buildingcomplex t