MAMUDU WANGARA v. GYATO WANGARA

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.A.

Abban J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The appeal is from the judgment of the High Court, Sunyani, delivered on 24 February 1981. The judgment allowed an appeal from the judgment of the District Court, Dormaa-Ahenkro, dated 20 July 1979. In the district court, the respondent, hereafter called the plaintiff, had asked for two reliefs against the appellant, hereafter called the defendant, namely a declaration of title to house No. AB 18, Dormaa-Ahenkro and ¢1,000 damages.

The parties were not Ghanaians. They were strangers from Upper Volta now renamed Burkina Faso. The plaintiff's case was that the land on which the house was built was granted to him and one Chemogo by the Moshiehene at Dormaa-Ahenkro for services rendered to the said Moshiehene. The plaintiff and the said Chemogo built the house on the land. The plaintiff occupied part of the house while Chemogo occupied the remaining part. At the time the house was built, no house rates were being levied by the authorities. But when payment of these rates was introduced in the area, the plaintiff and Chemogo agreed that the whole house should be registered in the name of Chemogo alone for the payment of house rates.

Chemogo fell foul with the law and was deported from the country. Thereafter the plaintiff started paying the said house rates himself. However, the defendant, some time after the departure of Chemogo from Ghana, called upon the plaintiff to pay rent of ¢4 a month for the portion of the house he, the plaintiff, was occupying. The defendant threatened to eject the plaintiff from the house if he, the plaintiff, failed to accede to that request. The demand for the payment of rent sparked off the litigation.

The defendant did not deny demanding rent from the plaintiff. The basis for his demand was that the defendant had been made the caretaker of the whole house, including the portion of the house being occupied by the plaintiff. The defendant contended that the whole house was built by one Sirikye Wangara and his son Chemogo. On the death of Sirikye, his son, Chemogo, took over the control of the [p.643] house and paid all the rates which were exigible on the house. Chemogo, before he left Ghana on the deportation order, handed over all documents on the house to the defendant as there were no relations of the late Sirikye or Chemogo living in the area. But later a grandniece of Sirikye, called Sita turned up. Being the only close relation of both Sirikye and C