Ruling:
The Plaintiffs, as Attorneys for the ten companies of Elmina, claim:
(1) that the document purporting to be a lease, executed in 1943 and expressed to be made between Nana Kweku Ewusi, Regent and others of the one part and Gerasimus Panagistopulos an Attorney for and on behalf of the Elmina Sea Salt Company of the other part, whereby a portion of the State or public Lands of Elmina purported to be granted to the said Company, be delivered up for cancellation, the same not having been executed by those who had proper authority by the Native Custom of the Elmina State to execute such a lease or grant such land, or in the alternative, declared to be a Concession and void for non-compliance with the Concessions Ordinance.
(2) An account of all moneys paid by or on behalf of the said Elmina Sea Salt Company to the persons named in the said lease as lessors
and
(3) An injunction restraining the defendants, their Agents Servants or workmen from doing any act purporting to be done by virtue of rights acquired under the said lease.
Sekyi for plaintiffs.
Sackeyfio for defendants.
Counsel on each side agreed that the question to be decided is whether the document Exhibit " A ", tendered and put in with the consent of counsel for the parties, is or is not a Concession so as to be governed by the rules of procedure as to Concessions under the Concessions Ordinance.
Briefly Sekyi's submission is that on the face of the document, it is a Concession - that the defendants were granted the sole rights over the land to build, dig, sink shafts, made Railways etc. It is a lease granting defendants rights or an option giving a right to prospect - If not a concession then it is an option. That the document comes within the definition of "Concession" under the Ordinance and is void. Clause 8 of Exhibit "A" only speaks of "A Reporting."
Sackeyfio - on the other hand, argues that the document is not a concession, the definition of Concession does not include a "lease", the document is a lease to lease land within a town or village, that minerals are excepted in clause 8 of Exhibit "A".
Under the Concessions Ordinance, No. 19 of 1939, Concession means any instrument whereby any right title or interest in or to land, or in or to minerals, timber, rubber, or other products of the soil in or growing on any land or the option of acquiring any such right title or interest purports to be granted or demised by a native, but does not include an assignment or such demise o
