JOSEPH NII TORGBOR OBODAI III v DREAM PROPERTIES LIMITED
2025
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- BAFFOUR, J.A (PRESIDING)
- ABOAGYE TANDOH, J.А
- BARIMA OPPONG, J.A
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
2025
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This appeal arose from a land lease dispute between Nii Jonathan Ephraim Sai Obodai, head of the Dzrase families of Ogbojo, and a corporate defendant that leased approximately 57.29 acres to build a school named for Obodai. The lease required an initial GH¢600,000 payment, USD 25,000 annual ground rent after a three‑year moratorium, and scholarships for eight family members. The plaintiff alleged non‑payment of rent, failure to build the school, and unauthorized alienation to third parties. The defendant claimed encumbrances and abatement under clause 8(f), and said a school of ministry and a church were part of the project. The Court of Appeal dismissed preliminary objections to the notice of appeal’s “pp” signature and misaddressing, held that lease interpretation was confined to the written terms, found implied covenants against assignment/subletting without consent under NRCD 175, and affirmed the High Court’s conclusion of fundamental breach, nullification of the lease, restoration of possession, and GH¢20,000 costs.
[1] My Lords on the 4th day of June 2021, the plaintiff commenced an action at the Registry of the trial court for himself and as the head of the Dzrase families of Ogbojo. He stated further that the said family is the allodial owner of a large tract of land of which the land in dispute forms part. He claimed the following reliefs against the Defendant in the Writ of Summons and the accompanying Statement of Claim:
a. An Order for recovery of possession of the parcel of land measuring 5.729 acres adjacent to the 55 Boundary Road (Ogbojo Highway) and close to Ogbojo first Junction the chief’s palace, originally enclosed within the a plot of land situate and lying at Ogbojo in the Greater Accra Region of the Republic of Ghana bounded on the North by proposed land measuring 612.0 feet more or less on the East by Plaintiff’s Land measuring measuring 433.3 feet more or less on the south by Plaintiff’s land measuring 398.5feet more or less, given the defendant for the purpose of construction of a school for the Ogbojo community which the defendant is now alienating to 3rd parties contrary to the purpose for which same was given.
b. An Order of the Court nullifying the said agreement by which the Defendant was given the said parcel of land which it is now seeking to alienate with a view to overreaching the Plaintiff
c. An Order for ejectment and perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, their agents, assigns privies and workmen from continuing to occupying and
interfering with the Plaintiff's land in any manner detrimental to the Plaintiff's interest.
d. Mesne profit
e. Cost including legal fees
f. Any other reliefs this Honorable Court deems fit.
[2] The bases of the above reliefs, as contained in the Statement of Claim, are that, Plaintiff's family of which he is the head owns the piece of land in dispute, and the fact of ownership is evidenced by the family's continuous and undisturbed possession of the said land since time immemorial. The plaintiff states further that that fact of the family's ownership right and title to the land has been subsequently documented in a Deed of Declaration dated 30th January 1985 and numbered AC.2033/1995.
[3] According to Plaintiff, somewhere in April 2013, the Defendant approached the Plaintiff to lease part of the Plaintiff's land under customary law for the construction of a school building, which would be named after the late father of the Plaintif