2016
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
On appeal from the Circuit Court, Accra, the Court of Appeal, per Dordzie J.A., affirmed Panguluba Mohammed Ali’s title to land at Frafraha acquired through a documented chain of conveyances (Agbawe family to Worthtrade Industries in 1977; Worthtrade to Mat Motors in 1984; Mat Motors to Ali in 1997). A composite plan confirmed the defendants’ parcels fell within Ali’s land. The co-defendant, Phibajo Limited (also referred to as Phibejo Ltd.), and associated defendants claimed purchases in 2000 and 2002 from Agbawe family heads and relied on searches saying the site was unaffected; they failed to cross-examine the Lands Commission witness or call the search signatory. The Court struck nationality grounds as moot under Article 266, rejected bona fide purchaser and laches defenses for lack of diligent enquiry, and applied nemo dat to hold the Agbawe family had divested title since 1977. The appeal was dismissed. Exercising Rule 32 of C.I. 19, the Court awarded nominal damages of GHS 3,000 against each trespasser and ordered removal of acts of trespass.
DORDZIE (MRS), J.A.:
This appeal is from the judgment of the Circuit Court Accra delivered on the 15th of November 2013 in favour of the plaintiff respondent. The appellants herein are praying this court to reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court and enter judgment in their favour.
Facts of the case:
The facts as set out in the respective pleadings are as follows:
The plaintiff averred in his amended statement of claim that he is a Ghanaian by birth but resident in Japan.
As per a conveyance dated 13th June 1997 executed between him and Mat Motors Ltd, registered as N0 2023/1997, he became the owner of a parcel of land situate at Frafraha; the said land is particularly described in paragraph 4 of his statement of claim as follows: …"bounded on the North East by vendor's land measuring 340 feet more or less, on the South East by vendor's land measuring 300feet more or less, on the South West by vendor's land measuring 340 feet more or less and covering an area of approximately 2.34 acres more or less.
Plaintiff made further averments on his root of title and said the land he acquired is part of a larger parcel of land originally owned by the Agbawe family, the Agbawe family made a conveyance to Worthtrade Industries; the said conveyance is dated 1st July 1977 and registered at the Land Registry as N0 2777/1978.
Worthtrade Industries in turn made a conveyance to his grantors Mat Motors Ltd. That conveyance is dated 8th August 1984 and registered as number 4553/1985.
Plaintiff further averred that because he is not resident here in Ghana, he did not develop the land when he acquired it; he returned to Ghana recently just to find his land encroached on by the defendants and other people whom he could not identify. According to plaintiff the 2nd to 4th defendants and the co-defendant claim the first defendant sold the land to them. Attempts to get the encroachers out of the land proved futile hence he instituted the action in the Circuit Court claiming the following reliefs:
a) Declaration of title to the land described above
b) Recovery of possession
c) Damages for trespass
d) Perpetual injunction
The defendants and co-defendant, Phibajo Limited, denied the plaintiff’s claims. The co-defendant maintained in its statement of defence that the plaintiff does not own the land in dispute because as at 11th of September 2006 an official search at the Lands Commission disclosed that the site is not affected by any transaction.
The co-defendant further