NII AMARKAI III ASERE DZASETSE & ANOTHER v. TEIKO OKAI & ORS
2016
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- OFOE JA (PRESIDING)
- ACQUAYE JA
- AGYEMANG (MRS.) JA
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
2016
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiff sought reversal of a High Court decision which dismissed his claim of title to Danchira lands. The High Court had based its decision on a previous Court of Appeal ruling, which itself relied on the decision of the Ga Traditional Council. The appellant argued that the Council lacked jurisdiction to make such declarations and that the High Court should have examined allegations of fraud in the statutory declaration. The appellate judgment held that the Ga Traditional Council's decision was void due to jurisdictional overreach and that the trial court should have taken evidence of fraud into consideration. Despite these points, the appellant’s claim to the land was found weak and unsupported by consistent evidence, leading to the dismissal of the appeal.
AGYEMANG JA:
In this appeal the plaintiff/appellant (described hereafter alternately as the plaintiff or the appellant) seeks a reversal of the judgment of the High Court, dated 31st March 2015 and furthermore, that judgment be entered for him.
The matters giving rise to the appeal are the following: There is a village with a number of settlements in the Greater Accra Region referred to as Danchira lands.
The plaintiff describes the lands as bounded on the North by Manhean and Ashaladza lands, on the south by Amanfro lands, on the east by Baanyebi Kpakpoand lands at Foma and Afuaman lands up tothe Densu River, and on the West by Akim Abuakwa land, with atotal acreage of 18, 665 acres.
The plaintiff brought suit against the defendants at the court below claiming inter alia, a declaration of title to the said lands and damages for trespass thereto.
It was the case of the plaintiff: the Asere Dzasetse and actingAsere Mantse who brought suit on behalf of the Asere Stool, thatthis was ancestral property that had been wrongfully andfraudulently appropriated by the first defendant whose DjanbiAmu family of Otublohum had fraudulently caused the secondand third defendants to register it as the owner thereof.
According to the plaintiff, the fraud was perpetrated when oneJohn Ayiku Mensah of the Djanbi Amu family swore to a statutory declaration claiming that family’s ownership of the lands, and supported same with a site plan prepared by order of the court in a suit brought by the plaintiff’s forbears: Nii Akramah II and Nii Teiko I, against the defendant’s ancestorTeiko Armah: Suit No. 18/61. It was the plaintiff’s pleading that the court-appointed surveyor one E. H. Sagoe submitted his report to the court in 1964, but that it was not used to determine the dispute as the case was adjourned sine die upon the death of the parties.
The said site plan to which was attached a statutory declaration of John Ayiku Mensah was allegedly used by him to register the said Djanbi Amu family as the owner of Danchira lands.
Thus did the plaintiff on behalf of the Asere stool commence suit at the court below seeking a declaration of title to the lands afore-described, damages for trespass to the said land, as well as a declaration that the statutory declaration upon which the first defendant’s Djanbi Amu family’s ownership of the Danchira lands was hinged, was an act of fraud.
The first defendant denied the said allegations and counterclaimed for a lesser area of land with