JOSEPH NKRUMAH v. AKUA YEBOAH

The Ghana Court of Appeal, per Aninakwah, J.A., dismissed Akua Yeboah’s appeal from a Circuit Court judgment concerning farmland at Bangromisea on Sefwi Benchemaa Stool land. The Asona Family head, successor to his late uncle Yaw Bour, had secured a Circuit Court judgment confirming a customary arbitration conducted by the chief and elders of Sayerano, who inspected the land and announced an award against Yeboah after hearing both sides. Yeboah resisted the award, attempted an appeal to the Omanhene of Sefwi Wiawso, and advanced multiple appellate grounds, including weight of evidence and distinctions between enforcement, arbitration, and traditional adjudication. The Court of Appeal held that the second Sayerano proceeding satisfied all essential features of customary arbitration, binding the parties and operating as res judicata. It affirmed that voluntary submission estops relitigation, rejected vague misdirection grounds under appellate rules, and declined to disturb supported concurrent findings, thereby upholding the Circuit Court’s grant of reliefs and dismissal of the appeal.