HARRY ZAKOUR v. JANET ANTWI
December 10, 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
- Tort Law
- Evidence Law
- Administrative Law
December 10, 2015
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal considered a land dispute over Plot No. 262 at Ofankor, Accra. A grantee obtained a lease from the Lands Commission in 1993 and marked the land, while an occupant asserted a 1998 purchase from the Nii Abetia Family of Asofa and remained in possession, building and residing there. The case turned on whether the Land Development (Protection of Purchasers) Act, 1960 (Act 2) could protect the occupant, particularly given Executive Instrument No. 82 (1978) had compulsorily acquired the Ofankor/Asofa area for the State. The court emphasized Act 2s conditions and bona fide acquisition, noted the occupant conducted no search and that the familys title had been extinguished under compulsory acquisition and nemo dat, and criticized the trial judge for equating damages with statutory compensation. Although the plaintiffs lease was unregistered and his acts of possession were limited, the court held these did not validate the occupants title or justify Act 2 protection, and allowed the appeal.
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