HARRY ZAKOUR v. JANET ANTWI
2015
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- OFOE J. A. (PRESIDING)
- ADUAMA OSEI J. A.
- WELBOURNE (MRS), J.A
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
2015
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff sued to recover land acquired in 1993, alleging the Defendant trespassed and built on it. The Defendant claimed good faith purchase from the original owners. The trial court awarded damages for trespass but protected the Defendant's possession under Act 2. On appeal, it was argued that the Defendant did not act in good faith and the family that sold the land to the Defendant had no title to the land after state acquisition. The appellate court found misapplication of Act 2 and decided the Defendant was not entitled to its protections.
J U D G M E N T
WELBOURNE (MRS), J.A.
I have read my brother’s lead judgment and I am in agreement with it but have a few comments.
This case is one of the myriad of cases bedeviling our land administration in this country. Too often do we see cases of acquisition of land by the State by executive Instruments, and those very lands being alienated by the very families from whom the lands were acquired by the state. The reason usually being attributed to this is non-payment of compensation or inadequate compensation paid by the State to the families.
The Plaintiff in this case acquired a parcel of land from the Lands Commission in 1993 with an area of 0-15 acres situate at Ofankor Residential Area in Accra. The parcel of land was numbered Plot No 262 and was bounded on the North–East by proposed road on the South-East by plot No 263 on the South-west by plot No 267 and on the North-West by a proposed road which said piece of land is more particularly delineated on the site plan No L.D 9944/AC4915 attached thereon shewn edged pink .
According to the Plaintiff after he had erected concrete pillars and deposited aggregates on the land, he realized after some time that the defendant had entered the land and built a structure on the land. All verbal and written warnings to the defendant to desist from the acts of trespass failed thereby the plaintiff had to institute legal action for declaration of title, recovery of possession and injunction restraining the Defendant from entering the land in dispute.
The Defendant on the other hand pleaded that she purchased the land in dispute from the Nii Abetia Family of Asofa, the allodial owners of the land and they prepared an indenture dated 11th July 1998 and executed between Alex Nii Ayitey Tetteh, the head and lawful representative of the Nii Abetia Family with the consent of the principal members of the said Nii Abetia family on one hand and the defendant on the other hand. The defendant according to her evidence stated that she had been in un-interrupted possession occupation since 1998 until 2005 that the plaintiff confronted her that he was the owner of the land in dispute. The defendant further alleged that the compulsory acquisition of the Ofankor/Asofa lands had been resisted by the Abetia Family by way of petitions and in the law courts. That the Executive Instrument had been set aside by a judgment dated 19th July 2004 in a suit instituted by the elders of the Abetia Family against the Lands Commission