KWESI MANKO AND ORS

On appeal from the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Central Province, the court addressed two actions originally retried by that officer after initial trial in the Tribunal of the Paramount Chief of Gomoa Assin. The plaintiffs sought ejectment, ownership or possession of a two-storey house and land they said belonged to the late Kojo Botsio’s family, referencing a 1885 Supreme Court decision in Coffie Patsie v. Boatoe. The Deputy Commissioner had upheld the 1885 sale by Kojo Botsio to Cudjoe Buatoe Bentil, finding acquiescence from rent-free occupation. Petrides C.J. rejected the allegation that the deed was forged, and, relying on Quassie Bayaidie v. Kwamina Mensah, held that such a sale of family land was not void but voidable, which the family had not timely rescinded. The court noted evidence of stranger occupation since 1914 and a chain of title culminating in Kofi Acquah, whose caretakers could not be ejected while his defeasible title subsists. The plaintiffs’ appeal and the cross-appeal were both dismissed, with Kingdon C.J. and Webber C.J. concurring.