GIFTY ELEANOR AYIKAI TAGOE v NANA ADU FRIMPONG
November 1, 2023
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
- SACKEY TORKORNOO C.J (PRESIDING)
- AMADU J.S.C.
- KULENDI J.S.C.
- ASIEDU J.S.C.
- GAEWU J.S.C
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
JUDGEMENT
ASIEDU, JSC:
[1]. Introduction:
My Lords, this appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on the 31st July 2019. In the said judgment, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of the trial High Court, Accra which was also
delivered on the 14th day of March 2014. In this judgment, the parties will retain their original designation before the High Court.
[2]. Facts:
In 1997, the Plaintiff, by a customary grant, acquired a piece of land from the Sempe Mensah Family of Ablekuma, Accra. A Deed of Lease was executed in favour of the Plaintiff. The said Lease was subsequently stamped with number LVB 5915/2001 and registered as number AR/2404/2000. The Plaintiff went into possession of the land by erecting boundary pillars and constructing a fence wall around the land. Subsequently, the Plaintiff had information that the Defendant had entered the land in question and was constructing a foundation for a building on the land. After the Defendant had refused to heed the Plaintiff’s warning to vacate the land, the Plaintiff issued a writ of summons in the High Court against the Defendant for:
1. Declaration of title to the land described in the statement of claim. 2. An order for recovery of possession
3. An order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Defendant by himself, his agents, servants, workers, land guards, privies, assigns and whosoever, from interfering in any manner whatsoever with the Plaintiff’s possession, use and enjoyment of the parcel of land described in the statement of claim.
4. General Damages for trespass.
5. Costs.
The Defendant denied the Plaintiff’s averments and contended that he acquired the land in dispute from the Nii Larbi Mensah Family of Ablekuma and immediately went into possession thereof by building a house on the land. Defendant says that he failed to heed the Plaintiff’s call on him to stop building on the land because the land is for him since he had acquired it from the rightful owners of the land. The Defendant therefore included a counterclaim in his Statement of Defence for:
a. Declaration of title to all that piece of land situate, lying at Ablekuma Accra containing an approximate area of 0.96 of an acre or 0.39 of a hectare more or less and bounded on the North-East by a proposed road measuring 81.0 feet more or less on the South-West by Lessor’s land measuring 200.0 feet more or less on the North-West by Lessor’s land measuring 200.0 feet more or less which land is more particular