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May 9, 1936
WEST AFRICAN COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
The following judgment was delivered :PETRIDES, C.J .. GOLD COAST.
This is an appeal and a cross-appeal from a judgment of the Acting Deputy Commissioner, Central Province, given by him after he had retried two separate actions originally tried by the Tribunal of the Paramount Chief of Gomoa Assin.
In the action against Bonso and others the plaintiffs' claim was for" ejectment, or ownership or possession" of a piece of land with a two-storey house which the plaintiff alleged was .. the property of the late Kojo Botsio's family, which said ownership of the said property was confirmed by a judgment of the Supreme Court, Accra, dated the 8th October, 1885, in the case of Coffie Patsie v. Boatoe and two others and for £100 damages.
The Deputy Commissioner found that the land on which the two-storey house was built belonged to Botsio and his family. Although the land was family property, Botsio (described as Cudjoe Buatoe in the Deed) purported to sell it with the house thereon to Cudjoe Buatoe Bentil as evidenced by a Deed dated the 30th December, 1885. The Deputy Commissioner found that this sale was valid, and that even if the family had not given prior consent, they subsequently acquiesced in the sale by allowing Bentil and his successors in title to occupy the house rent free from the year 1885 until the present time without protest.
Appellants' Counsel contended at length that this Deed was a forgery, but entirely failed to satisfy us that such was the case.
He then contended that the alleged sale of 1885 by Botsio to Bentil was absolutely void as Botsio could not sell the land as it was family property, and that the Deputy Commissioner was wrong in holding that the family had acquiesced in the sale by allowing Bentil and his successors in title to occupy the house rent free from the year 1885 until the present time without protest. He contended that the family could not have acquiesced in the sale as they knew nothing abo'lt it at the time and never saw the Deed of sale. He pointed out that as Bentil had married Botsio's niece he was entitled to live in the house. We think that this contention is right, and that in consequence the fact that Bentil and those who inherited from him paid no rent is no evidence that the family acquiesced in the sale of the property to Bentil.
In 1914 the house was sold by Essie Gyan, who inherited indirectly from Bentil, to H. E. Thompson as evidenced by Exhibit .. D." When Thompson died Okwesi succeeded to the pr
AI Generated Summary
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.