October 28, 2009
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This Ghana Supreme Court appeal arose from a land dispute over Ayensuako/Osimpo stool land. The Respondent, Nana Kofi Antwi V, claimed the land through his predecessor Opanin Ofinam (Nana Kofi Antwi I), who first settled as a tribute-paying tenant to the Duakwa Stool and later purchased the land outright in 1928–1930 for £465.10, supported by a receipt (Exhibit A) and an indenture (Exhibit B). In 2000, Mr. Acheampong, styling himself as Nana Osimpo III, performed a sheep-slaughter rite to claim the land; shortly thereafter about 55 oil palm trees were felled, sold by the 1st Defendant to the 2nd Defendant. The defendants alleged joint acquisition by Ofinam and Osimpo and raised jurisdictional objections that the suit was a chieftaincy matter, and pleaded adverse possession. The Supreme Court held the case was a straightforward property dispute, not chieftaincy; gazzetation evidence could be considered without converting the case. On the merits, the Court credited Exhibits A and B, found no documentary support for joint purchase, applied Majolagbe on burdens of proof, rejected adverse possession for lack of open, continuous acts and licensee status, and affirmed the High Court and Court of Appeal.
ANSAH, J.S.C.
The plaintiff sued the defendants in the High Court, Agona Swedru, for
(a) a declaration of title and recovery of possession of a piece or parcel of land situate lying and being at a place commonly known and called Ayensuako and bounded as follows on the North by Kwa-Baa, Kobina Dadzie, Okuta and Ayensuako stream
On the North by Kojo Ahoro, Kwa-Otuo, Kwaku Bu.
On the East by Kojo Ahoro, Ofadaa lands.
On the West by Ayensu River.
(b) ¢20,000,000.00 general damages for trespass.
(c) Order for accounts, and;
(d) Perpetual Injunction restraining defendants and agents and assigns from interfering with plaintiff’s peaceful enjoyment of the land in dispute.
In support of his case, the plaintiff stated Nana Kofi Antwi I, also known as Ofinam, first settled on the land in dispute as a tribute paying tenant to the Duakwa Stool. In 1914 he agreed to a request by his brother Osimpo the herbalist and his children, to join him to till the land. They went to the land acknowledging Nana Antwi I as their overlord. Osimpo died in 1925 but his children remained on the land on the leave and license of Nana Kofi Antwi I.
Later in 1928, the Chief of Duakwa, Nana Amuakwa I, offered the land to Nana Kofi Antwi I for sale. Nana Kofi Antwi I accepted the offer, and the land was sold to him for #465.10. When the money was paid a receipt was issued to acknowledge payment. This was tendered at the trial as Exhibit A. The plaintiff tendered Exhibit B dated 1930 prepared to evidence the sale, to prove his assertion of the sale of the land to his predecessor in title.
The plaintiff traced the sequence of succession that when Nana Kofi Antwi I died in 1930; he was succeeded by Nana Kofi Antwi II, till it got to the turn of Nana Kofi Antwi V, the present plaintiff at the trial.
It was in 1976 when Nana Kofi Antwi II died that a faction of the Ayensuako elders enstooled one Kwaku Arhin, a grand-child of Osimpo, as the chief of Ayensuako. Ofinam’s successors brought an action at the Awutu Traditional Council seeking an order to destool Kwaku Arhin. Kwaku Arhin himself conceded that he was not a chief of Ayensuako and therefore withdrew his claim. Accordingly Nai Awulabi was enstooled as Nana Kofi Antwi IV and controlled the lands of Ofinam until he died in 1997.
In 2000, the plaintiff was enstooled as Nana Kofi Antwi V and one Akyeampong slaughtered a sheep to claim the land in dispute, for it had been jointly purchased by Ofinam and Osimpo and he had come to claim