KWAMI v. PARKINSON HOWARD LTD. AND ANOTHER
1960
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- OLLENNU J
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
1960
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The dispute involves land tenure between Africans and a corporate body where both parties relied on customary law. The High Court examined whether it had jurisdiction or if the case was properly within the remit of the local courts, governed by the Local Courts Act, 1958. The Court found that the case was indeed cognizable by a local court and that mere loss of fees due to jurisdiction transfer did not constitute sufficient hardship to retain the case in the High Court. As such, the High Court referred the parties to an appropriate local court, making no order as to costs.
JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.
By section 87 (1) of the Courts Ordinance in all suits between Africans or persons of African descent, or between persons of African descent on one hand and persons not of African descent on the other, and particularly where the suit relates to the tenure and transfer of real property, customary law is deemed to be the law applicable for the determination of the suit, unless the contrary is shown. In the instant case, therefore, between Africans or persons of African descent on one hand and persons who are not Africans or of African descent on the other hand, customary law is the law deemed to be applicable. The pleadings filed in the suit, far from showing that law other than customary law is that applicable, make it abundantly clear that the plaintiff bases his claim upon his customary tenure of the land in dispute, while the defendant (a corporate body) depends upon the customary title of the third party, namely the Manya Krobo State Council.
[p.62]
Section 24 (4) of the Courts Ordinance, which lays down the original jurisdiction in land suits, permits the Land Court to exercise that jurisdiction when certain conditions exist, among those conditions being the absence of a native court or a local court competent to try it. Again, section 18 of that Ordinance prohibits the High Court from exercising jurisdiction in any cause or matter properly cognizable by a native court or a local court. So, too, section 55 of the Local Courts Act, 1958 expressly takes away the jurisdiction of the High Court in any cause or matter coming before the High Court for trial if at any stage of the proceedings in a case it should appear to the court trying it that the said cause or matter is one properly cognizable by a local court.
By Instrument No. L.N. 299 of 1959, the Minister responsible for local courts brought the Local Courts Act into force in the whole of the Eastern Region of Ghana, and created appropriate local courts to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon a local court by the Local Courts Act. Section 8 of the Act provides that local courts created under it shall have unrestricted jurisdiction as to persons, except as to causes and matters in which the Government of Ghana or any officer acting in his official capacity is a party, or in which the revenue of the Government of Ghana or the acts of any public officer while acting in his official capacity are involved. In this respect the Local Courts Act differs from the Native Courts