MRS MARGARET WINFUL v. MUSTAPHA DAUDA
February 3, 2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- ACKAH-YENSU J. A. (PRESIDING)
- GAISIE J.A.
- BAFFOUR J.A
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
February 3, 2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Eric K. Baffour, JA, writing for a panel comprising Barbara F. Ackah-Yensu, JA (Presiding) and Amma A. Gaisie, JA, allowed an appeal by a plaintiff who had sought declaration of title, injunction, possession, damages for trespass and costs over land at North West Odorkor (Anyaa). The plaintiff traced her claim to a 1987 lease from Nii Nikoi Amontia IV, Asere Mantse, supported by a Lands Commission search and ground-rent payments to the Administrator of Stool Lands. The defendant asserted ownership via the Charbukwei family through his father’s 1989 acquisition and a 2004 lease, relying on a 1948 Native Court judgment and a statutory declaration, and emphasized physical possession. Treating the appeal as a rehearing on the weight of evidence, the court held the defendant’s documents did not establish ownership of Anyaa lands and statutory declarations do not convey title, whereas the plaintiff’s registered lease and stool-land revenue evidence supported a superior claim. The Court of Appeal reversed the High Court and entered judgment for the plaintiff, with no order as to costs.
Baffour J.A.
Introduction
This is a deceptively simple case but has placed the court in a considerable state of uncertainty. This is due to how poorly the case was fought at the court below with the respective cases of the parties not having adequately been advanced by the lawyers who had a sacred duty to represent their clients to the best of their legal abilities. As the court is unable to manufacture evidence to bolster the floundering claims of a party in the absence of evidence adduced at trial, our duty is to dispense justice in accordance with law and evidence adduced and nothing more. We can only remonstrate when the necessary evidence that should have been adduced is not done more so when trial is treated in a desultory or perfunctory manner by parties and their lawyers.
The Case of Plaintiff/Appellant
By a further amended writ issued pursuant to leave granted by the High Court, the Plaintiff/Appellant sought five reliefs against the Defendant/Respondent being declaration of title to land of an approximate size of 0.35 acre being at North West Odorkor, popularly called Anyaa, perpetual injunction, recovery of possession, damages for trespass and cost. It would be apt for the parties to be simply referred to by the designations that they bore at the court below. Plaintiff in her statement of claim asserted ownership of the disputed land for which she claimed that the Defendant had trespassed on. It was the case of the Plaintiff that she obtained a grant of the land from the Nii Nikoi Amontia IV, Asere Mantse in 1987 with the consent and concurrence of the principal elders of the stool. That having been granted the land, she went into possession by erecting a foundation on the land. That acts of trespass by the Defendant compelled her to report the conduct of the Defendant to the Anyaa Police for the arrest of the agent of Defendant by name Yussif Mohammed. That at the Police station notwithstanding the opportunity afforded Defendant’s agent, he could not produce any document to the Police. To Plaintiff she is the owner of the land as searches at the Lands Commission reveals her as the owner of the land by virtue of the grant from the Nii Nikoi Olai stool.
The Case of Defendant/Respondent
Defendant on the other hand refuted the claims of Plaintiff in his amended statement of defence by contending that it was rather the Plaintiff who had trespassed on his land. Defendant claimed ownership through his father Alhaji Mamouda Issah Dawuda, who he n