GH - KYEAME APPIAH VS DANIEL MENSAH

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Wenchi District Court delivered on the 2nd day of June, 2021, by which the decision of the Trial District Court in the matter herein, a land cause, was delivered in favour of the Defendant.

In these proceedings, I will retain the description of the parties which they had before the Trial District Court.

The backdrop to the action herein may be briefly narrated as follows.

The plaintiff, for himself and on behalf of his siblings, sued Defendant before the Wenchi District Court claiming the following reliefs: a. Declaration and recovery of possession of all that piece and parcel of farmland situate, lying and being at "MOAMOASO or "NYAMFA TIE" on the Nsawkaw Stool Land bounded by the properties of Asuwaba, Moamoa and Daniel Mensah.

b. General damages for trespass c. An order for perpetual injunction.

d. Recovery of the cash sum of GHC 4, 000 being the cost of planting cashew seedlings, the defendant had unlawfully uprooted.

The Plaintiff’s claim is that the farmland in dispute was jointly acquired by his late father Kontonkyi and his late father's two brothers, Kwadwo Tanor and Kwasi Tanor about eighty (80) years ago.

According to the Plaintiff, his late father and his two brothers built cottage on the disputed farmland and settled there for their farming activities.

After the demise of his late father and his two brothers, he and his siblings took over the land and have been farming thereon for the past thirty-five (35) years.

It is the case of the Plaintiff that he granted a portion of the disputed farmland to one Kwame Takyi who cultivated cashew on it, but the defendant went and uprooted the cashew seedlings valued at four thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵4, 000). Provoked by the alleged actions of the Defendant on the disputed land, the Plaintiff, initiated an action against him at the Wenchi District Court claiming the reliefs referred to supra.

The Defendant, per his statement of defence, completely denied the Plaintiff’s claim and joined issue with him on all his averments.

The Defendant’s story, in essence, is that the disputed farmland was acquired by his uncle, Kofi Panin, who planted oil palm trees on it.

According to the Defendant, he followed his uncle during his late uncle's occupation and cultivation of the farmland in dispute until his uncle died in 1988. He went on to state that, after his uncle’s death, he was appointed the customary successor and he planted oil palm and cashew trees on portio