October 31, 2022
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This High Court land dispute involves the Tsie We lands of Teshie within the Klemusum Quarter. The substituted claimant, the acting Osabu and Ayiku Wulomo and head of the Nortey Kuma Plamanta We family, acting through his lawful attorney Stephen Nii Sowah Hanson, relied on a Supreme Court judgment affirming the Tsie We family’s custodianship and a land title certificate covering about 2,244.192 acres. The case was triggered when the 1st, 2nd and 5th defendants registered and plotted portions of that land at the Lands Commission. Only the 3rd defendant appeared, and a consent judgment ended the suit against it; the remaining defendants ignored the writ despite service, including substituted service on the 5th defendant. On the unchallenged record, the Court granted title, trespass damages, possession, and a perpetual injunction, and ordered the Lands Commission to expunge the defendants’ registrations. Costs of GH¢10,000 were awarded.
JUDGMENT
By his amended statement of claim filed on the 15th of June 2020, the plaintiff sought
the following reliefs jointly and severally from the defendants.
(a) Declaration of title to all that piece or parcel of land as described in the schedule
below;
(b) Damages for trespass
(c) Recovery of possession of any portion of plaintiff’s land trespassed unto by 1
st
nd, 3rd and 5th defendants and further order that any offending structures be
removed at cost to the defendants.
(d) Order directed at the 4th defendant to expunge from its record the registration
of the 1st, 2nd,3rd and 5th defendants since plaintiff had prior registration of his
land in the record of the 4th defendant.
(e) Perpetual injunction restraining the 1st,2nd,3rd and 5th defendants or their agents
from having anything to do with plaintiff’s land.
The 3rd defendant was the only defendant who entered appearance through its counsel
and filed a statement of defence. On the 23rd July 2021, this court adopted a consent
judgement between the plaintiff and the 3rd defendant as a judgement of the court
pursuant to terms of settlement between the plaintiff and the 3rd defendant. Thus the
action against the 3rd defendant discontinued.
As reiterated above, the 3rd defendant is the only defendant to have responded to the
writ of summons served on them. The rest of the defendants to date have neither
entered appearance nor filed any statement of defence to the claims of the plaintiff
herein. The 5th defendant in particular has been served severally with hearing notices
via substituted service but this has all been for nought. They have simply ignored the
writ of summons. The plaintiff in support of his claim gave evidence through his
lawful attorney, Stephen Nii Sowah Hanson, who described himself as the head of the
Nii Adjei Sankuma We of the Tsie We family of Teshie. The present plaintiff who was
substituted in the stead of the original plaintiff after his demise is the acting Osabu
and Ayiku Wulomo and head of the Nortey Kuma Plamanta We family, the adjudged
custodian of the Klemusum Quarter lands which includes Tsie We lands of Teshie.
Tendered into evidence was a judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the Tsie We
family headed by the Osabu and Ayiku Wulomo of Klemusum as the custodian of the
Tsie We lands.
The instant writ had been precipitated by the 1st,2nd and 5th defendants plotting
portions of the plaintiff’s land in their names at the Lands Commission,