HELENA OYOE QUARTEY OF ACCRA v. BOYE QUARTEY AND ASHONG QUARTEY
1951
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- JACKSON, J
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
1951
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This appeal addresses the rights of occupancy and tenant obligations in a piece of property involving family ownership, tenant relations, and property management issues. The appellant, Helena Oyoe Quartey, contested the Native Court's judgment that granted possession to respondents while questioning her removal from rent-collecting duties.
Judgment:
This is an appeal from a judgment of the Ga Native Court given on the 24th February, 1951, in respect of claims made in four consolidated suits. The claims relate to the rights of occupancy of one Helena Oyoe Quartey in premises described as being marked as D.291/2 and claims relating to the rights and obligations of tenants in these premises. The Native Court gave to
Nii Boye Quartey and to Ashong Quartey possession as against Helena Oyoe Quartey and further ordered her to refund the sum of £23 19s. Od. in respect of rents collected by her. From that decision Helena Oyoe Quartey has appealed to this Court.
The ground of appeal filed on the 2nd March, 1951 was that the judgment was against the weight of evidence.
Mr. Mills Odoi, who appeared for the appellant argued that the premises were the property of the Kpakpatse Family and that, one T. R. Quartey the Head of that Family, and as such Head held that property and that the appellant was the oldest surviving female in that family, that she had lived in that house collecting the rents for very many years, that the respondents cannot be given possession of that house as against the Head of the family and that the judgment of the Native Court in the suits referred to as Exhibit "A" namely the judgment dated the 28th June, 1950, could not affect the rights of the appellant who was not a party to those actions and which were ones at the instance of W. A. Quartey (Ashong Quartey) for the recovery of rents payable to the appellant by her tenants.
Mr. Bossman replying for the respondents submitted that the main facts were undisputed, namely, that the property was originally the self-acquired property of one Kwate Kojo and that upon his death intestate it became the property of his immediate family and which was a branch of the Kpakpatse Family and that the appellant, who was a member of the wider Kpakpatse Family had been permitted to occupy the house and to collect the rents and that as a result of her failure to pay the rates the house had been sold to a person who had then transferred it to a Syrian named Bikhazi.
That consequently the responcent W. A. Quartey has instituted proceedings in the Magistrate's Court to set aside the sale and that the sale was set aside and that the property belonged to the Mensafio section of the Kpakpatse We Family and over which property Boye Quartey had been appointed caretaker.
In respect of the evidence in support of the argument that Boye Quartey had been ap