LIZA WIAFE vs HAJIA AMUDULATU AKWELEY OPARE ADDO & ORS

The plaintiff in her amended writ of summons and statement of claim filed on 7th May, 2012 pursuant to the order of this court made on 27th March, 2012 seeks the following reliefs against all the defendants, jointly and severally:

i. Declaration that the plaintiff remains a lessee of the demised premises with a subsisting 25 years lease subject to renewal;

ii. Declaration that whatever interest that anybody including the 1st defendant, acquires in the demised premises is subject to the plaintiff’s interest.

iii. An order directed to the lessor’s estate to renew the lease for a further term of 25 years pursuant to clauses 1 and 7(a) of the Lease Agreement;

iv. An order directed to the 2nd – 18th defendants to continue with their subsisting sub tenancies with the plaintiff;

v. Declaration that the request to 2nd to 18th defendants to attorn tenancy directly to the 1st defendant is a breach of contract and unlawful.

Damages for breach of contract.

In her amended statement of claim, the plaintiff states that she was and is at all material times the successor in title of the original lessee of House No. 979/3, Knutsford Avenue, Accra (herein after referred to as the demised premises). She states that the 1st defendant purports to be the purchaser and present owner of the demised premises and that the 2nd – 18th defendants were at all material times sub-tenants in the demised premises by virtue of sub-tenancy agreements executed with the plaintiff.

Plaintiff avers that by a lease agreement dated 22nd August 1957, made between Stephen Coleman (now deceased), therein as the lessor of one part and Waffic Hassan Jojo (now deceased) therein lessee of the other part, the demised premises was leased to the lessee for a term of 50 years commencing from 22nd August 1957 upon terms and conditions provided there-under.

She avers further that Clauses 1 and 7(a) of the lease agreement provided that on the expiration of the 50 years lease, the lessee shall have the option of continuing the tenancy for a further term of twenty-five years, the said option to be exercised by notice in writing to the lessor at least three calendar months before the expiration of the lease.

It is the plaintiff’s case that the Lessor died on a date unknown to her, however beginning from about 2005, Ken Brookman-Amissah, Esq. represented to the plaintiff that he had been appointed the lawyer for the Lessor’s estate with instructions to deal with the plaintiff.

On the basis of Kenneth Broo