GHASSOUB AND GHASSOUB v. SASRAKU

JUDGMENT OF LORD MORRIS OF BORTH-Y-GEST

Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest delivered the judgment of their Lordships. This case concerns certain lands approximately eight square miles in area which formed part of a much larger area of land in Chempaw. The original plaintiff in the action sued as the head and representative of a family company of Teshie people (hereinafter called the plaintiff family company) and claimed that his family company had become the owners of the lands (the eight square miles) in or about the year 1925. The original plaintiff died in the course of the proceedings and the respondent was substituted in his place. The respondent representing the plaintiff family company claimed that the lands (consisting of three adjoining pieces of land) were sold by the stool of Chempaw. The stool of Chempaw is a sub-stool to the Paramount Stool of Kokofu. Kokofu is within what was, prior to 1957, the colony of Ashanti. The respondent (representing the plaintiff company) further claimed that the sale had been with the knowledge and consent of the Paramount Stool of Kokofu and that his family company had been in possession ever since they had purchased.

At the time when the plaintiff family company claimed to have purchased the lands, the Omanhene of Kokofu was Nana Kofi Adu. But [p.498] in the year 1951 he was destooled for selling lands. His successor, who was enstooled the same year, was Nana Osei Assibey III. He gave evidence at the trial and said that at the time of his enstoolment he was told that three pieces of land at Chempaw had been sold. He had sent for the family company: they attended and told him that they had bought the land by outright sale by guaha. In the course of his evidence while referring to the destoolment of Nana Kofi Adu he also said that "The Odikro of Chempaw was similarly destooled for selling stool lands in collaboration with Nana Kofi Adu.”

The action arose out of certain events which took place early in 1956. A member of the plaintiff family company who was a headman of a village on the lands in question was working on his farm when he heard the noise of the felling of trees. He went to investigate and saw a caterpillar-machine. It had, he said, "cut a sway the right through from Chempaw over our boundary into our land". He said that they (the plaintiff family company) had kept the boundaries of their land cut. He saw a young man with an axe cutting a mahogany tree. Enquiries revealed that those who were engaged in the