KWADWO ASAMOAH ANING vs AC 01 CONSTANCE DES BORDES GHANA IMMIGRATION SERVICE, HQ
June 13, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE BARBARA TETTEH-CHARWAY (MRS)
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Tort Law
June 13, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
At the High Court, Justice Barbara Tetteh-Charway granted reliefs to a plaintiff who had acquired a 99-year lease over land from the Kplen We Family of Agbawe on 14 May 2008. Following an official search revealing an encumbrance on part of the parcel, the plaintiff registered the unencumbered 1.392-acre portion and, upon notification by the Land Title Registry of multiple survey requests involving Princeton Multipurpose Ltd, obtained a transfer from Princeton and a land certificate covering the affected area. While awaiting certification, his caretaker reported construction by the 2nd Defendant, and despite warnings, both defendants erected two-storey buildings on sections of the land. The defendants failed to enter appearance despite substituted service, and the plaintiff proceeded on default of defence, tendering exhibits including the lease, search report, Lands Commission correspondence, transfer deed, and land certificate. Applying the settled burden in land title actions and citing Adwubeng v Domfeh, the court found the uncontradicted documentary evidence sufficient, entered judgment for the plaintiff on all reliefs, and awarded damages and costs against each defendant.
Plaintiff’s case is that by a lease dated 14th May 2008, he acquired the land in dispute from the Kplen We Family of Agbawe for a term of ninety nine years.
Before acquiring the land, he conducted an official search, the results of which, revealed that a section of the land was affected by a transaction.
He therefore proceeded to register the unencumbered part which measured 1. 392 acres.
In the process of registering the unencumbered part of the land, he received a letter from the Director of the Land Title Registry notifying him of a multiple request for survey and preparation of parcel plan on the land in dispute affecting Plaintiff and Princeton Multipurpose Ltd. He therefore contacted his grantors, who admitted that they had earlier granted a larger parcel of land within which the section they had sold to Plaintiff fell, to Princeton Multipurpose Ltd. Eventually, Princeton Multipurpose Ltd transferred title in the affected piece of land to the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff obtained a land certificate covering the affected area.
According to the Plaintiff, while waiting for the issuance of his land certificate, his caretaker informed him of construction works being carried out by 2nd Defendant on his land.
The Plaintiff claims that his warnings to the 2nd Defendant to desist from working on the land in dispute fell on deaf ears as the 2nd Defendant succeeded in putting up a two storey building on the land in dispute.
According to the Plaintiff, while efforts were being made to stop the 2nd Defendant from further encroaching on the Plaintiff’s land, the 1st Defendant also emerged and began to construct a two storey building on another section of Plaintiff’s land in complete disregard of all warnings to desist from her acts of trespass.
The Plaintiff is therefore seeking the Court’s intervention to grant the following reliefs against the Defendants;
1. Declaration of title to the land in dispute
2. Declaration that Defendants have trespassed onto Plaintiff’s land
3. Entry of possession in respect of the land in dispute
4. An order setting aside the said transactions in favour of Defendants
5. Damages for wrongful dealings with Plaintiffs land by Defendants
6. An order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant or her assigns from in anyway interfering with the Plaintiff’s land based on the said transactions
7. Damages in respect of trespass to Plaintiff’s land.
8. Costs.
The Defendants did not enter appearance to the suit or