March 30, 2023
DISTRICT COURT
GHANA
CORAM
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J U D G M E N T
By an amended writ of summons filed on 30th March 2021, the Plaintiffs claim against
the Defendants the following reliefs:
a. A declaration of title of all that parcel of land known as plots No. 74 and 75
respectively situate and lying at North Mpatado as per the site plan.
b. Perpetual Injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd Defendants, their agents,
workmen, and privies from trespassing on Plaintiffs’ land
c. General damages against the 1st and 2nd defendants for trespassing
d. And for any further equitable order(s) as this court deems fit
e. Cost
Plaintiffs’ Case
The plaintiff’s case is reflected in his statement of claim and the witness statement filed
on the 15th of October 2020 and 24th of September 2021 respectively.
The crux of the Plaintiffs’ claim is that by a deed of Assignment dated 10/08/2016 with
Deed no. 730 they acquired plots Nos. 74 and 75 situate at North-West Mpatado.
According to the 2nd Plaintiff, sometime in 2018 she went on the land and noticed an
unknown developer developing on No 74. Subsequently, she filed an injunction
application to restrain the unknown developer who turned out to be the 1st Defendant.
It is the case of the Plaintiffs that they acquired the disputed land from one Lucas
Annane of Juabuso District Hospital and that despite promptings from them to the
defendant to stop her trespassory acts she failed to do so. Plaintiffs aver that if the
defendant is not restrained, she would develop the land and that would cause
irreparable damage to their land. It is the case of the Plaintiffs that the presence of the
1st Defendant has made it impossible for them to continue with their development,
hence this action.
1st Defendant’s Case
It is the case of the 1st Defendant that she acquired Plot No. 74 from Ebusuapanyin
Robert Ainoo, head of Kona/Akona Family in 2016. 1st
Defendant avers that before the said plot was leased to her, copies of the Re-Entry
Judgment granted on the 12th of November, 2015, and the Writ of Possession were
shown to her by her grantor. 1st Defendant contends that at the time the Plaintiffs’
grantor leased out Plots Nos. 74 and 75 (the disputed land), the said grantor did not
have any legal title to the said plots of land in view of the re-entry judgment against the said grantor. It is the case of the 1st Defendant that since the Plaintiffs’ grantors’ legal
title to Plots Nos. 74 and 75 were extinguished by the judgment, the purported lease to
the Plaintif
AI Generated Summary
A Ghana District Court, presided over by Her Worship (Mrs.) Rosemary Edith Hayford, dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims for declaration of title, injunction, and damages over plots 74 and 75 at North-West Mpatado. The plaintiffs said they acquired both plots by deed of assignment dated August 10, 2016 from Lucas Annane and discovered an unknown developer, later identified as the first defendant, building on plot 74. The first defendant maintained she acquired plot 74 in 2016 from the Kona/Akona family after a re-entry judgment was granted in November 2015 and a writ of possession issued in June 2016. The second defendant confirmed the family’s 2011 lease to Lucas Annane with a three-year development covenant and explained re-entry was obtained upon breach. The court treated “Lucas Amane” in prior proceedings as a correctable misnomer for “Lucas Annane,” accepted substituted service and presumed regularity, and concluded Lucas’s interest was extinguished before the 2016 assignment. It therefore denied all reliefs and awarded costs to the defendants.