NARTEY v. MECHANICAL LLOYD ASSEMBLY PLANT LIMITED
1988
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- ADADE
- TAYLOR
- FRANCOIS
- WUAKU
- AMUA-SEKYI JJ.S.C
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Corporate Law
- Tort Law
- Equity and Trusts
1988
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court considered an appeal by Philip Tetteh Nartey after the Court of Appeal had reversed a High Court decision in his favour in a dispute over a 9.12-acre parcel at Frafraha. Nartey purchased the land in 1976 from the Frafraha Mantse, Nii Komey Okpoti, and promptly took possession, farming and fencing the area. Mechanical Lloyd Assembly Plant Ltd., relying on a purported 1976 lease from the La Mantse to their executive chairman, Rexford Aye Darko, and later on a 1979 conveyance (exhibit F) from Nii Okpoti and Atofotse, entered with bulldozers, destroying crops and structures. The majority (Adade, Taylor and Wuaku JJ.S.C.) held that the plaintiff’s grant (exhibit B) was valid under Ga customary law and ratified by family acts; that the La Mantse’s lease was void for lack of concurrence, stamping and registration; and that the defendants’ conveyance could not displace the plaintiff’s prior registered title and was defective under the Illiterates Protection Ordinance. The court rejected reliance on Act 2 and emphasized estoppel by conduct and registration priority. The appeal was allowed, restoring the High Court’s judgment and dismissing the defendants’ counterclaim.
JUDGEMENT OF ADADE J.S.C.
This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal (Edusei, Edward Wiredu and Osei-Hwere JJ.A.) dated 31 July 1985: see Mechanical Lloyd Assembly Plant Ltd. v. Nartey [1984-86] 1G.L.R. 412, CA wherein their lordships reversed a judgment by the High Court, Accra (Hayfron J.) dated 16 October 1984.
In the action the plaintiff claimed:
(a) a declaration of title to a piece of land at Frafraha (at times described as Fafraha) covering a total area of 9.12 acres;
(b) ¢250,000 damages for trespass;
(c) recovery of possession of the said land; and
(d) an injunction to restrain the defendants, their servants or agents or both from entering upon the said land.
In 1976 the plaintiff-appellant (hereafter referred to simply as the plaintiff) acquired a piece of farm land at Frafraha measuring 9.12 acres. The land was demarcated for him, on the instructions of the Frafraha Mantse, Nii Okpoti, by the family's surveyor and Nii Okpoti's son. The elders who had been informed and were to have gone with the surveyor "did not get time to go." The Mantse however later informed them that the grant to the plaintiff had been made. There is no evidence that anyone objected. The grant was initially a customary one for which the plaintiff paid a fee of one bottle schnapps and ¢200 "as custom demands." It was later evidenced in writing. The document of title was tendered in these proceedings as exhibit B. It is dated 15 April 1976 and was executed by Nii Komey Okpoti and witnessed by A. Okpoti, described by the plaintiff as a principal member of the Agbawe family. Shortly after the grant the plaintiff took possession of the land. He erected his corner pillars, weeded part of the land and planted mango and palm trees. He said he erected a temporary structure and installed a farm labourer on the land. He fenced the whole area with barbed wire and planted cassava, maize and okro. He connected pipe-borne water to the site. He had apparently begun his farming in earnest. He enjoyed the land peacefully in 1976 and 1977. The plaintiff [p.321] did not set any money value on any or all of the activities he carried out on the land, and therefore it is not easy to assess their cost. The trial court, however, believed that the plaintiff carried out all those works and activities. In any case they were not seriously denied in evidence by the defendants.
Some time later, on a Saturday in June 1978, the plaintiff saw some strange workmen on the land. The