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JUDGMENT
1 Background
I need to state at the outset that I did not hear this suit. I was asked to deliver the
judgment in the suit whose hearing began on 9 December 2013 by this court, then
presided over by His Lordship Justice N.C.A. Agbevor (J) (as he then was) who
completed the hearing on 19 October 2017 and scheduled to deliver the judgment
for 19 February 2018, which has serially been adjourned over the period up to the
close of 2018 when the trial judge was appointed to the Court of Appeal.
Delivery of the judgment, therefore, fell into hiatus. Upon application by the
parties, His Lordship the Chief Justice in his letter dated 9 November 2021
authorized, and directed that I deliver not only the judgment in this suit but also
judgments in three other suits that had been pending before the trial judge
Agbevor J. The Registrar of the Court managed to recover the dockets from
Agbevor J, which had enabled me to comply with the directives of the Chief
Justice; indeed, this is the last of the said four pending judgments.
2 Parties’ statements of case
The Plaintiff Hayi family of Ho are claiming to be the owners of the land in this
suit. The defendants are trading companies. According to Plaintiff, 1st Defendant
had since 1986 been occupying the land in dispute without paying rent and further
had assigned the land to 2nd Defendant who had also been occupying the land
without paying rent. It was for this reason that on 20 October 20101, Plaintiff,
represented by A.K Amoako by a writ of summons commenced the suit against
Defendants for:
a. An order for [a] declaration of title to all that parcel of land situated
and lying at Ho-Bankoe and particularly described in para 4 of the
statement of claim.
b. [An] order for recovery of possession.
c. Payment of economic rent from 1986 to date.
d. Cost includes solicitor’s fees.
The case of the Plaintiff Hayi family is that:
[T]hey are the owners of a parcel of land … at Ho-Bankoe covering an area
of 1,700 square feet, bounded on the North by property belonging to the
Akorli Family measuring 12 feet more or less on the South by a property
belonging to the Lessor 100 feet more or less and on the West by property
belonging to the Lessor measuring 100 feet more or less.
1 That is close to thirteen (13) years ago.
According to the Plaintiffs, in 1961 the family leased the subject matter land to the
United Africa Company of Ghana (UAC) for a term of 25 years, which expired in
1985. UAC fold