NANA ASIAMAH ABOAGYE v. ABUSUAPANYIN KWAKU APAU ASIAM
2018
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- ADINYIRA (MRS), JSC (PRESIDING)
- YEBOAH, JSC
- BAFFOE-BONNIE, JSC
- APPAU, JSC
- PWAMANG, JSC
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
2018
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This Supreme Court decision concerns a land dispute involving four Larteh-Ahenease families—Okyeame Kwame Asiem, Nana Obeng Kwabena, Wontumi, and Akyeampong—over approximately 369 acres adjacent to Okuapeman Secondary School. The matter arose after an earlier High Court, Accra judgment in Suit No. 2539/91 recognized the families’ ownership and a plan delineated each family’s portion. In 2008, the head of the Nana Obeng Kwabena Family sued the head of the Okyeame Kwame Asiem Family and developers in the High Court, Koforidua, claiming exclusive ownership and alleging the defendant had registered the entire tract in his name. The trial court applied Adjeibi-Kojo v Bonsie to accept plaintiff’s traditional narrative and treated the other families as licensees; the Court of Appeal affirmed. On further appeal, Pwamang, JSC, writing for the Court, relied on undisputed documents—the power of attorney, the prior judgment, and the plan—to hold that all four families are co-owners and that documentary evidence prevails over conflicting oral testimony. The Court dismissed most reliefs but ordered the Lands Commission, Koforidua, to delete the defendant’s registration and affirmed that ownership follows Exhibit 6.
PWAMANG, JSC:-
This case takes its roots from an earlier case filed in the High Court, Accra, Suit No. 2539/91 intituled Nana Asiamah Aboagye v 1.Nana Addo Dankwa III, 2. The Attorney-General. The plaintiff in that case claimed on behalf of four families for ownership and possession of a parcel of land at Larteh adjoining the Okuapeman Secondary School. He contended that the land was the ancestral land of the four families but unknown to them the predecessor of Nana Addo Dankwa III, Akropong Omanhene Nana Kwame Fori, purported to grant it out in the 1960s for the building of Okuapeman Secondary School without their consent. Their case was that the school occupied only a portion of the land and they did not know their whole land had been taken until their activities on the land were challenged by subjects of the Akropong Stool and a search at Lands Commission revealled that the land had indeed been given out, hence the suit. The families were; Okyeame Kwame Asiem, Nana Obeng Kwabena, Wontumi and Akyeampong Families all of Larteh-Ahenease. The High Court gave judgment on 27th September, 2002 in favour of the plaintiff. At the trial, plaintiff tendered a plan of the land on which the boundaries of land belonging to each of the four families as well as Okuapeman Secondary School were delineated. The total land of the families came to approximately 369 acres while the land of Okuapeman Secondary School was approximately 37.60 acres.
It appears that after the judgment there was no appeal so there was peace until 27th February, 2008 when plaintiff herein took out a writ of summons from the High Court, Koforidua against the 1st defendant and some "Developers/Trespassers" claiming that the entire 369 acres of land at Larteh adjudged by the High Court, Accra in Suit No. 2539/91 is the exclusive property of the Nana Obeng Family of which he was Head. Nana Obeng Family is one of the four families that were adjudged to be owners of the land in the earlier suit. He sued the 1st defendant, who is the head of Okyeame Kwame Asiam family, another of the four families in the earlier case, and the one who was given a power of attorney to represent the four families in that case. The grounds for the new suit were that after the judgment 1st defendant had the land registered in only his name at the Lands Commission, Koforidua and made grants of parts of it to developers without plaintiff's authorisation. As to the interest of the other three families that were involved in the