REGIMANUEL GRAY LIMITED vs TEMA WEST MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE PATRICIA QUANSAH
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff instituted action, seeking declarations and injunctions against the Defendant for failing to notify approval or rejection of its building permit application, deemed approved after three months. The Plaintiff acquired a leasehold interest and submitted required documents for approval but faced arbitrary demolition by the Defendant. The Court concluded that the Plaintiff had a valid leasehold, complied with application procedures, and was entitled to relief as the Defendant provided no valid justification for refusal of the permit. The Defendant was ordered to issue the permit and restrained from further demolition activities, with costs awarded to the Plaintiff.
1. INTRODUCTION[i] The Plaintiff herein instituted this action against the Defendant for the following reliefs:
i. A declaration that the Defendant by refusing to notify Plaintiff of either its approval or rejection of Plaintiff’s application for building permit to develop plot no. DEV/276, Community 14, Tema, three months after its submission, the said application is deemed to have been approved by the Defendant.
An order of injunction restraining the Defendant, its assigns, agents, privies and/or workmen/servants from demolishing or causing any demolition of any development structure that may be constructed on plot no. DEV/276, Community 14, Tema, by the Plaintiff.
Any further order(s) as this Honourable Court may deem equitable.
2. FACTS OF THE PLAINTIFF’S CASE[ii] In its statement of claim and which was subsequently amended, the Plaintiff averred that it acquired a leasehold interest in some 15. 72 acres of land from TDC Development Company Limited on or about the 28th of May 1992 and these plots have been described as DEV/276, Community 14, Tema.
Per the Plaintiff, the plots of land have been registered in the Deeds Registry of the Lands Commission of Ghana as No. 854/1992 in favour of the Plaintiff herein. [iii] According to the Plaintiff, it subsequently went into effective possession of same by placing its caretakers on the land to ward off prospective encroachers and/or trespassers and also commenced the development of what is known as the second phase of the Plaintiff’s Community 14 residential estates.
Sometime later, the Plaintiff decided to commence the construction of a fence wall around the remaining plots of land following attempts by trespassers to encroach on those remaining plots of the land.
The Plaintiff therefore submitted its drawings to both TDC and the Defendant for approval.
In addition, the Plaintiff stated it applied and paid for a building permit from the Defendant herein.
The Plaintiff further contended that on the 4th of July 2018, after submitting its building drawings to the Defendant for approval, the Defendant requested that the Plaintiff seeks a “No Objection Recommendation and Approval Notice”from TDC before its permit could be processed.
The Plaintiff was thus advised by the Defendant to purchase new building permit application forms and re-submit same together with the TDC “No Objection Recommendation and Approval Notice”. The Plaintiff was said to have complied and it did purchase the building permi