MOUGANIE v. YEMOH

JUDGMENT OF AMISSAH J.A.

The principal issues in this case are issues of fact. Was the defendant granted the land in question by the allodial owners before the plaintiff's predecessors in title were granted that land? Was the land granted to the plaintiff and his predecessors the same as the land which has now been built on and fenced by the defendant? The learned trial judge, Edusei J., found on these against the plaintiff. Consequently he dismissed the plaintiff's claim for an injunction to restrain the defendant from trespassing on the plaintiff's land. The plaintiff appeals against this decision.

The plaintiff, a foreigner, claimed to be the owner of a piece of land in Labadi. His claim depended on a number of transactions, which looked at cumulatively, establish, according to him, his right to the land. First there was a deed of conveyance executed on 11 December 1956 by which two brothers, Ziorkley and Adisenu, sold a parcel of land to him. Neither Ziorkley nor Adisenu was an original owner of that land. Both of them said they had bought it in 1953 from the La Mantse Nii Adjei Onano V, and the conveyance for these transactions dated 27 February 1953 in the case of Ziorkley and 18 September 1953 in the case of Adisenu were exhibited. The plots of land so obtained lay side by side and both fell within the lands of the Abafum quarter of Labadi. It is agreed that as to such lands the proper grantors are not the La Mantse and his elders but the head of the Abafum quarter and his elders. Presumably, Ziorkley had heard after taking his conveyance from the La Mantse of this right inherent in the Abafum quarter and he secured his title to the land granted to him by the La Mantse through a deed of gift from Nii Ankamafio, the head of the Abafum quarter dated 23 May 1953. The land granted by the Abafum quarter covered not only that plot which had already been granted him by the La Mantse but also an equally large piece lying due east of that. That land to the east was what later on that year was covered by the conveyance from the La Mantse to Ziorkley's brother, Adisenu, referred to earlier. Thus the plaintiff traced his root of title with respect to the part of the land he claimed to have bought from the brothers, Ziorkley and Adisenu. The plaintiff also laid claim to a piece of land adjoining these two plots which he said he obtained by way of a lease dated 10 January 1958 from the La Mantse.

Some time in 1965, the plaintiff said he observed the defendant