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NUMO NORTEY ADJEIFIO & OTHERS v. NII MATE TESA & OTHERS

2012

COURT OF APPEAL

GHANA

CORAM

  • AKAMBA J.A. (PRESIDING)
  • MARIAMA OWUSU J.A.
  • AYEBI J.A

Areas of Law

  • Property and Real Estate Law
  • Evidence Law
  • Civil Procedure

AI Generated Summary

In a Ghana Court of Appeal decision authored by AYEBI J.A., the court dismissed an appeal brought by the 5th defendant/appellant, the head of Kle Musum quarter, over land associated with the Tesa settlement. The judgment recounts that the Teshie people, after leaving Labadi, settled on land purchased from the people of Nungua and later shared this land among quarters during the reign of Nii Ashitey Akomfra II. The founding of Tesa by Numo Kofi Anum predated that sharing, and such historical accounts were treated as traditional evidence. The court emphasized that even when traditional history is contested, the proper approach is to test competing versions against recent acts, drawing on Ebu vrs Ababio and Adjeibi-Kojo vrs Bonsie (as explained in Adjei vrs Acquah). The plaintiffs/respondents demonstrated longstanding, exclusive acts of ownership: settlement by descendants of Numo Kofi Anum, farming, animal rearing, and grants to residents, all known to the 5th defendant/appellant. Concluding that a quarter head has neither proprietary nor jurisdictional interest in a settlement founded outside quarter lands, the court found no merit in the appeal.

JUDGMENT