JESSE W.N FLAMER & ORS v. KOFI AGYEMANG & ORS
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- F.G. Korbieh J.A. (Presiding), Cecilia H. Sowah (Mrs.) J.A., H. A. Kwofie J.A.
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The appeal from the dismissal of the plaintiffs' action to set aside a judgment for fraud was allowed. The court reasserted that fraud vitiates everything and affirmed the plaintiffs' right to impeach a judgment by initiating a fresh action, even during a pending appeal. The case is to be re-heard by a differently constituted court.
JUDGMENT
F.G. KORBIEH, J.A.
This is an interlocutory appeal from the ruling of the Land Division of an Accra High Court given on the 24/6/2016 in which the trial High Court dismissed the plaintiffs/appellants’ action to set aside a judgment allegedly obtained by fraud by the defendants/respondents from another Accra High Court. The brief historical antecedent of the case leading to the afore-mentioned ruling is as follows.The plaintiffs/appellants (hereinafter referred to only as the plaintiffs) sued the defendants/respondents (hereinafter referred to only as the defendants) in the Land Division of an Accra High Court seeking the following reliefs:
a) Declaration that the statutory declaration made by Ernest AmmahAnsah in 1977 describing the OdaiNtow Family Lands at Kwabenya and Ashongman is not a true reflection of the land adjudged in the OdaiNtow Family in the Bosompim&Ors v. Martei&Ors case of 1904.
b) A declaration that the 1977 statutory declaration made by Ernest AmmahAnteh describing the OdaiNtow family lands as adjudged in the 1904 Bosompim Judgment was fraudulently made.
c) A declaration that the judgment delivered by the High Court presided over by His Lordship Justice P. Bright Mensah dated 17th January, 2013 describing the OdaiNtow family as the owners of lands so described and captured in the description as contained in the 1977 statutory declaration was obtained by fraud.
d) An order of the court to set aside the judgment dated 17th January, 2013 delivered by Lordship Justice P. Bright Mensah in Suit No. BL/746/5005 on grounds of fraud.
These reliefs werecontained in the plaintiffs’ writ of summons. In the accompanying statement of claim, the plaintiffs averred, amongst other things, that the 1st plaintiff was the owner of the land described in the first schedule while the 2nd plaintiff was the allodial owner of the land described in the second schedule in the statement of claim. They had also averred as follows: that in 2005 the 1st plaintiff sued the defendants and the 2nd plaintiff was subsequent joined to the suit in Suit No. BL/746/2005; that in the said suit, the defendants counterclaimed for declaration of ownership of the same land and traced their root of title to the OdaiNtow family of Ashongman. The plaintiffs further averred that the defendants had pleaded that their grantors’ ownership of the land in dispute had been confirmed by a judgment delivered in 1904 in the case of Bosompin& Another v. Martei& Another by Justice B