OPANIN YAW MANU & ANOTHER v. REGINA BROWN

AYEBI J.A.

In the Sunyani High Court, the plaintiffs claimed against the defendant the following reliefs:

1. A declaration that H/No. Plot 2, Block “P” Mim-Kokoteasua is family property.

2. Recovery of possession of the said H/No. Plot 2, Block “P” Mim-Kokoteasua.

3. An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, her agents, assigns, workmen etc. from having anything to do with the said house in dispute.

4. A declaration by the Honourable Court that all the self-acquired properties of the deceased be shared according to law.

The deceased in relief “4” above refers to the late husband of the defendant/respondent by name Thomas Amoako. The deceased and the plaintiffs/appellants are uterine siblings. About three months before his death, Thomas Amoako gave the house in dispute, H/No. Plot 2, Block “P” Mim-Kokoteasua to the defendant by way of a deed of gift. He served a copy of the deed on the 1st plaintiff who is his elder brother. The 1st plaintiff said he protested the act of his brother because the house is a family property.

At the trial, the plaintiffs gave evidence that Maame Yaa Yaa, their mother acquired the piece of land originally in the 1960s. She constructed a swish building (which they called Attah-Kwame house) on it. All of them including the deceased lived in it. Later the deceased demolished the swish structure and started a re-construction with cement blocks. But he got stuck because he ran short of money. So he 1st appellant and their mother completed the first floor which is more or less a basement by flooring it with concrete cement and they all lived in it. Subsequently, the deceased resumed the construction of the house and completed a 16-room structure. In paragraphs 31 and 32 of the statement of claim, the plaintiffs pleaded specifically that since it was their mother who acquired the land on which the house is situated, it had became a family property and same cannot be gifted to the defendant by his late brother.

Defendant however countered that by a lease executed in 1998, the Chairman of the Brong Ahafo Regional Lands Commission acting on behalf of the Government of Ghana, granted the plot of land to her late husband. She relied on a copy of the lease her late husband gave her. She also tendered the copy of the deed of gift in her favour. Contrary to the evidence of the 1st plaintiff that he permitted the deceased to convert the use of the house from residential into a guest house, defendant tendered eviden