JAMES OWUSU ANSAH & KWABENA FATO v AFIA SIMPA
April 30, 2025
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE DR. POKU ADUSEI
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
April 30, 2025
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Justice Dr. Poku Adusei adjudicated a dispute over five plots—5, 5A, 6, 6A, and 7 (Block AA)—at Manso Asamang, purchased by the plaintiffs from Kofi Badu and Kwabena Konneh, who were judgment debtors in Afia Simpa v. Kofi Badu & Kwabena Konneh (C1/102/2013). In that 2021 High Court judgment, Afia Simpa, as head of her immediate maternal family, secured a declaration of family title, and Badu and Konneh were confirmed as licensees who had denied title and were ordered to account for proceeds of twelve plots sold to third-party developers. The present plaintiffs alleged trespass, sought declaratory and possessory relief, and obtained an interlocutory injunction in February 2025. After directing written addresses, this court held that the prior judgment operates as estoppel per rem judicatum, the plaintiffs’ interests subsist under customary grants, allocation notes are unnecessary, and a court order may confer title under section 36(1)(c) of Act 1036. The defendant is estopped from asserting title to the five plots.
Dr. Poku Adusei JA
On 16th June 2021 the Defendant herein (as head of her immediate family) obtained final judgment in a suit intituled Afia Simpa v. Kofi Badu & Kwabena Konneh [C1/102/2013] over parcels of land located at Manso Asamang in the Ashanti Region. The defendants in that suit (i.e., Kofi Badu & Kwabena Konneh), as judgment debtors, were the grantors of plot nos. 5, 5A, 6, 6A and 7 Block AA at Manso Asamang to the plaintiffs in the instant matter. The said five (5) plots of the plaintiffs herein formed part of the larger parcels of land at Manso Asamang, the subject matter of the judgment Suit C1/102/2013.
In delivering judgment on 16th June 2021 in Suit C1/102/2013, His Lordship Samuel Obeng-Diawuo J (as he then was) held as follows:
(a) That the defendant herein (as plaintiff therein) was the head of her immediate maternal family, and further decreed title in the plaintiff’s family as owners of ‘all that piece or parcel of land situate at Asamang, on Asamang Stool land, and forming boundaries with the properties of Akwasi Bawuah, Kwabena Dunsin, Ama Sraha, and Mansoman Secondary School'.
(b) That the defendants therein (i.e., plaintiffs' grantors) were not the bona fide owners of the disputed land. Therefore, their conduct in alienating parcels of the disputed land to third party developers amounted to denial of title of the plaintiff's family, for which reason they had forfeited any interest as licensees in the subject land.
(c) That in terms of the twelve (12) plots which had already been sold by Kofi Badu & Kwabena Konneh to 3rd party developers, an order was made for Kofi Badu & Kwabena Konneh to account for the proceeds of the sales to the Plaintiff therein.
The contention of the plaintiffs in the instant suit was that, following the decision of the High Court in suit C1/102/2013, the defendant herein began trespassory acts onto their five (5) plots, which formed part of the twelve (12) plots pronounced upon by the court. As a result, they commenced the instant action for declaration of title, recovery of possession and perpetual injunction against the defendant. The plaintiffs then followed up with an application for interlocutory injunction against the defendant, which injunction order was granted by this court on 18th February 2025 to restrain the defendant and her agents, assigns and privies from interfering with the plaintiffs' plot nos. 5, 5A, 6, 6A and 7 Blocks AA, at Manso Asamang until the f