2020
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Delivering reasons for a March 10, 2020 order, the Supreme Court of Ghana, per V.J.M. Dotse JSC, granted certiorari to quash a High Court (Land Division, Accra) ruling of April 15, 2014 in Suit No. FAL 291/11 (Robert Tettey Mensah and others v Sergeant Abdulai Bawa and others), and directed the Lands Commission to cancel Land Certificate TD 13285 issued to the Alokoto Commey family and restore TD 9221 to the applicant real estate company. The Applicants, represented by Managing Director Naomi Asantewa Effah, held 45 acres at Sasaabi (Oyibi) through members of the Nii Annang Nukpa family but were not parties to the High Court suit and were not heard. The Court held the application timely under Rule 62 of C.I. 16, as the grounds first arose when the Applicants discovered the effect of the ruling in December 2018. Finding a breach of audi alteram partem and Wednesbury unreasonableness by the High Court and Lands Commission, and noting the Commission’s affidavit acknowledging inadvertence, the Court exercised its supervisory jurisdiction, admonishing trial courts to scrutinize collusive litigation designed to overreach prior grantees.
RULING
DOTSE JSC:-
On the 10th of March 2020, this court allowed an application at the instance of the Applicants herein in which they sought an order of Certiorari directed at the Ruling of the High Court, (Land Division) Accra, Coram Eric Baah J dated 15th day of April 2014 in Suit No. FAL 291/11 intitutled Robert Tettey Mensah and 2 Others v Seargent Abdulai Bawa and 7 Others and also a further order of Certiorari directed to the Registrar of Land Title Registry, Lands Commission, for cancellation of Land Title Registration Certificate No. TD 13285 and restoration of Land Certificate No. TD 9221.
The grounds of the said application are:-
Breach of the Rules of natural justice
In support of the above ground, the Applicants allege that the High Court, Land Division Accra, presided over by the Judge referred to supra in the said Suit on 15th April 2014 breached the rules of natural justice to wit, the “audi alteram partem rule” when he delivered a ruling in the matter intitutled Robert Tettey Mensah and 2 others v Seargent Abdulai Bawa and 7 Others in Suit No. FAL 291/11 and made orders directing the cancellation of the Applicant’s Land Title Certificate No. TD 9221 without giving the Applicants an opportunity to be heard.
2. Wednesbury Principle
The Registrar of the Land Title Registry, of the Lands Commission improperly exercised his powers of cancellation when he purportedly cancelled Land Title Certificate No. TD 9221 belonging to the Applicant who was neither a party to the Suit No. FAL 291/11 which produced the Ruling referred to supra that the Lands Commission purportedly relied upon to cancel Land Title Certificate No. TD 9221 in terms of the Wednesbury principle.
BRIEF FACTS
In an affidavit sworn to by one Naomi Asantewa Effah, the Managing Director of the Applicant company, she deposed to the following facts as follows:-
That the Applicants as a real estate development company are the owners of a 45 acre tract of land situate at Sasaabi (Oyibi) covered by Land Certificate No. TD 9221.
The 2nd Interested Party herein, are the allodial owners of a large tract of land at Sasaabi near Dodowa a portion of which is covered by Land Certificate No. TD 9221.
The 2nd and 3rd Interested Parties are all principal members of the 1st Interested Party family and that the 3rd Interested Party was at a point in time the head of the 1st Interested party family, and particularly at the material time that the land was conveyed to the Applicant company.