NANA KWAKU ASUBONTENG v. BETHEL PRAYER MINISTRY & ANOTHER

OFOE,J.A:

The plaintiff is a brother of the deceased, Bishop Owusu Tabri, founder of the 1st defendant church. The dispute is about a 0.9 acre land and building with 22 rooms thereon located in the environs of Achimota, a suburb of Accra. The plaintiff claims it was his deceased brother who introduced the vendor, Nii Dodoo Blankson, to him and after due payment he was leased the property and issued the indenture exhibit A. He subsequently constructed these buildings and put in some of his relatives. With his permission, his brother, Bishop Owusu Tabiri put in some of his church members and was paying rent on behalf of these church members. It was after the death of his brother when he sought to collect rents from the 1st defendant church, that he was met with the ownership claim to the property. When he got the police to investigate the claim of the church it was found that:

“1.In 1978 the document was used by the Bishop Owusu Tabiri as a mortgage for loan from the Standard Chartered Bank.

2. The mortgage was discharged in 2002, still unknown to the plaintiff until 2008. It took the intervention of the police, the former employers of Bishop Owusu Tabiri before the plaintiff got to know this.

3. There was a lease hold agreement dated the 16th day of March 2001 from John H. D. Blankson to Bethel Prayer Ministry International.

4. On the 17th day of January 2002 there was a lease from Asubonteng Constructional Works to John Nii Dodoo Blankson.

5. On the 16th day of March 2005, the 1st defendant applied for land title certificate from the land title registry and same was granted them as No. G.A 24519”.

It is the case of the plaintiff that the foregoing were all fraudulent acts perpetrated by the brother, Bishop.

He had no option than to sue them for a declaration who owns this property. Because the 1st defendant had obtained a Land Title Certificate on the property plaintiff found it necessary to include the 2nd defendant in the suit. His claim before the High Court was for:

“a. A declaration that the registration of the 1st defendant church as the proprietor of the land described below is null and void and of no effect on the grounds that the same was obtained or procured by the fraud of the leader of the 1st defendant, Bishop Owusu Tabiri(deceased)

b. an order that the land registered be rectified by the cancellation of the registration of the 1st defendant church as No 110/1/26/2 at volume 25 folio 8 thereof as proprietor of the land known as p