JUDGMENT OF AMISSAH JA.
Two simple points arise out of this appeal from the decision of Lassey J. (as he then was). The first is whether general damages can be awarded against a concessionaire and in favour of the holder of customary rights for acts done by the concessionaire in promotion of the objects of his concession. The second is whether the special damages awarded in this particular case were properly assessed.
The appellants, Messrs. Gliksten (West Africa) Ltd., obtained a timber concession over an area which included the respondent's cocoa farms. The concession was obtained in June 1947, and the court's final order on it was made four years later in June 1951. The concession contained the usual clause for the protection of customary rights which includes farming. It is not clear whether the respondent's farms were in existence at the time the concession was obtained. The vague references to time made in the course of the respondent's case indicate that the farms were started about the same time as proceedings were being taken by the appellants to finalise their concession. Although the learned trial judge devoted some time to analysing the law applicable when a farm is grown before the grant of a concession and when it is grown afterwards and seemed to have arrived, after his discussion of the problem, at the conclusion that different principles apply to the different situations, I find, with all [p.449] due deference to him, the question of which preceded the other of very little moment. Section 32 (1) and (2) of the Concessions Ordinance, Cap. 136 (1951 Rev.), are so sweeping in their conferment of rights on the concessionaire, that fraud apart, his title is good against the whole world. The provision reads as follows:
"(1) A certificate of validity shall be good and valid from the date of such certificate as against any person claiming adversely thereto, and shall be effective in respect of the whole area of land contained by the boundaries stated in such certificate, whether or not any discrepancy exists between such area and the area indicated by the notice and plan of the concession referred to respectively in subsections (1) and (3) of section 8.
(2) A certificate of validity (whether issued under the provisions of this Ordinance or of any Ordinance repealed by this Ordinance) shall be conclusive evidence that all the requirements of the Ordinance under which it was granted or purported to be granted and all matters precedent and inci
