MATTHEW OWUSU v. ADWOA NKRUMAH & ANOR
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- Her Ladyship Angelina Mensah-Homiah (Mrs.)
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff, as Head of Family, sued the Defendants seeking a portion of the compensation they received for disturbance of surface rights on family land. The case hinges on whether the Plaintiff was still the head of the family, the definition of the land as family land, and an alleged family agreement on compensation. The court found that although the Plaintiff was initially the head of the family and the land was family land, there was no proven agreement to pay 1/3 of compensation to family coffers. Additionally, since the mining activities were illegal, no compensation claims arising from these activities could be enforced. The Plaintiff's case was dismissed and no compensation was awarded.
JUDGMENT
The Plaintiff commenced the instant action in his capacity as the Head of family of the immediate (maternal) family of the defendants, for and behalf of the principal elders of the family. By the endorsement on his amended writ of summons filed on 13/02/2014, he claimed 1/3 of the sum of GH¢40,000 and 1/3 of the sum of GH¢20,000.00 paid to the Defendants for the disturbance of surface rights in respect of family land occupied by the Defendants.
The Plaintiff’s case as contained in the amended statement of claim is that the land in issue formed part of land which devolved according to customary law to the parties’ maternal family following the death of one Opanin Kwaku Bonsu who originally cultivated the land. The land has been under the control of various heads of family. A decision was taken at a family meeting to the effect that family members in actual occupation will receive 2/3 of any compensation paid in respect of the land whilst 1/3 of the compensation will be paid to the family coffers. It is the Plaintiff’s case that a small scale mining firm with a Minerals Prospecting license paid compensation to the Defendants for the disturbance of surface rights and crops. According to the Plaintiff, other family members who received compensation duly paid 1/3 to the family except the Defendants herein.
The Defendant’s version of the story is that they did not receive any compensation for the disturbance of surface rights but they were compensated for the destruction of their tree crops.
The defendants alleged that the Plaintiff is head of family but not as a result of consanguinity. He was brought into the family by his mother Akosua Nyarko, who came to live with the Defendants’ great grandmother, Fosua (deceased). He was made head of family when there was no male adult in the family and family cocoa farms were entrusted to him. These cocoa farms formed part of a larger piece of land which two children of Fosua, namely Akua Adehye and Opanin Kwaku Bonsu (both deceased), reduced into cultivation as part of Yawkrom stool lands. When Opanin Kwaku Bonsu passed on, Akua Adehye (deceased) remained in effective cultivation. The Defendants are descendants of Akua Adehye through her daughter, Yaa Pokua. They denied the Plaintiff’s story that he permitted them to farm on the land because it was their mother, Yaa Pokuaa, who in her life time allowed them to reduce portions of the land into cultivation. Hence, they are not liable to pay any compensation to