KWAW v. AWORTWI

Essiem J.A., writing for the Court of Appeal, addressed a land dispute at Wassaw Damang concerning the Gyedawuo area. The plaintiff claimed he had, with the Damang chief’s consent, broken virgin forest decades earlier and cultivated cocoa farms; the defendant, head of the Agona family of Damang, maintained the land is family property and that the plaintiff held only a subsistence-farming licence but breached it by planting cocoa and subletting plots to abusa tenants. Evidence showed a valid customary arbitration before the chief resolved the dispute against the plaintiff, directing tenant farmers to attorn to the Agona family and pay abusa proceeds to the defendant. The appellate court held the arbitration award binding and faulted the trial court for ignoring it and failing to assess the defendant’s case. Finding the plaintiff a licensee, the court rejected the trespass claim, granted the defendant a declaration of title and a perpetual injunction restricting further alienation or cultivation in breach, affirmed attornment and abusa payments, declined forfeiture, and noted estoppel against the Agona family’s claim to the plaintiff’s existing cocoa farm due to delay.