JUDGEMENT

KULENDI JSC.

1. It is one of the great tragedies of human experience that the ties which ought most to bind: blood, heritage, and shared ancestry, should sometimes become the very grounds upon which bitter disputes are waged. In this extant appeal, I find the words of Mark 3:25 particularly instructive, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. It is therefore with a sense of duty and fidelity to the evidence, the facts and the law that we pronounce this judgement in a dispute that has sundered the unity of the Nsesreso Family of Duayaw Nkwanta, a family bound by the bloodline of a common ancestress, Adowaa, whose memory ought to have been a source of cohesion rather than contention. That descendants of one womb, nurtured by the same ancestral soil, should now find themselves before the courts in adversarial posture, is a sobering reminder of the fragility of kinship when tested by time, ambition, or misunderstanding.

2. The instant appeal is brought against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kumasi, delivered on the 23rd day of February, 2023, which reversed the earlier decision of the High Court, Kumasi, rendered on the 31st of October, 2019. This Court must now, with measured sobriety, navigate the tangled web of claims that lie at the heart of this familial discord.

BACKGROUND:

1. The Plaintiffs/Respondents/Appellants (hereinafter referred to as “the Appellants”) commenced an action against the Defendants/Appellants/Respondents (hereinafter referred to as “the Respondents”) per a Writ of Summons dated 22nd July, 2016 praying the Trial High Court for the following reliefs:

a)Declaration that H/No C26, also known as H/No D103/3, Duayaw Nkwanta was acquired by Yaa Adubea the great grandmother of the plaintiff (sic) herein and has been inherited by the 2nd plaintiff herein;

b)Declaration that H/No D106/3 was acquired by Aboagye Tabiri a.k.a Kwadwo Fordjour and has been succeeded and inherited by the 2nd plaintiff;

c)Declaration that the 2nd plaintiff as the current customary successor is the rightful person to manage the property stated in reliefs "A & B" supra; and

d)An order of injunction to restrain the defendants from interfering with the plaintiffs' possession and management of the said property.

1. On their part, the Respondents filed a joint Statement of Defence on the 13th of October, 2016 effectively denying the Appellants’ allegations per their Statement of Claim.