KWAKU AFRANIE v. GOLDEN AGE COMPANY & ANOTHER

Presided over by Justice I.O. Tanko Amadu (JSC) with Justices H.A. Kwofie (JA) and A. Oppong (JA), the Court of Appeal considered an appeal from a High Court, Sunyani ruling dismissing a fresh action by an Appellant seeking to nullify a prior land judgment in the dispute involving Golden Age Company Limited and defendants including Nana Obiri Boahen. The Appellant alleged fraud, lack of service, and breaches of natural justice, and sought declarations of ownership over Plots 27D–27F and injunctive relief. The Respondents invoked estoppel per rem judicatam, pointing to the High Court’s 2014 judgment and the Court of Appeal’s 2017 affirmance, and argued the Appellant, a grantee/agent of the 1st Defendant in the earlier suit, stood by during those proceedings. Reviewing the appeal under the omnibus weight-of-evidence ground and addressing defective appellate grounds, the Court held that res judicata barred relitigation, the fraud allegations were not particularized, any remedy lay in the original or appellate case, and the fresh action was an abuse of process. The appeal was dismissed and the High Court’s decision affirmed.