SAMUEL JOSUAH OKINE AND SARAH AYELEY OKINE v. KWEKU ANOR AND OTHERS
January 24, 1952
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- JACKSON, J
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
January 24, 1952
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Samuel Josuah Okine and Sarah Ayeley Okine sued multiple defendants, including Kweku Anor, Kwabena Ofori, Robert Aryee, R. L. Ashley, W. W. Bruce-Tagce, Mary Hesse, and traditional authorities Nii Tackie Tawiah III (Ga Mantse) and Nii Ayitey Adjin III (Gbese Mantse), seeking £50 damages for trespass and an injunction over land at Fanofa, south of Ring Road in Accra. They traced title through their late brother Emmanuel Joshua Aryeetey, who purportedly purchased the parcel from Tetteh Kojo under a 1921 deed describing adjacent owners. The defendants asserted competing titles, primarily through Charles Okoe Aryee, said to derive from a 1894 stool grant. Taking judicial notice of Ga stool tenure, Jackson J held the plaintiffs failed to prove an absolute or family title, noting lack of boundary proof, absence of adjacent owners’ testimony, and that a tendered plan was not shown to be a public document. Estoppel based on a 1951 judgment failed because the plaintiffs were not parties. The claims were dismissed, with costs awarded to the Gbese Stool.
Judgment: The plaintiffs Samuel Josuah Okine and Sarah Ayeley Okine claim as against the defendants Kweku Anor, Kwabena Ofori, Robert Aryee, Ashley, W. W. Bruce-Tagce, Mary Hesse, Nii Tackie Tawiah III, Ga Mantse and Nii Ayitey Adjin III, Gbese Mantse £50 damages for trespass to land and an injunction. The writ was issued out of the Ga Native Court on the 17th February, 1947 and was transferred to this court by an order made on the 22ad December, 1947.
Pleadings were ordered and were duly filed.
The plaintiffs' case, is that their brother Emmanuel Joshua Aryeetey who died on the 29th August, 1937, purchased some land situate at Fanofa in Accra from one Tetteh Kojo and exhibited the deed which was admitted and marked as exhibit No. 1. This deed conveyed to the late E. J. Aryeetey an estate purporting to be one in fee simple free trom all encumbrances, and describes the land as being bounded on the west and the south by "Tetteh Kojo's" land, on the north by "Kotey Brothers" land and on the east by "Garshong, Lutterodt and others" land.
I have indicated the site of the land on the property plan admitted and exhibited as No. 3 as being situate in the rectangle I have marked in black ink by the letters A/A.
Upon the death of their brother Emmanuel Joshua Aryeetey the plaintiffs inherited this property. During the life of their brother Sarah Ayeley Okine admits that no one went on the land other than her brother who farmed there, but that after they inherited the land her son-in-law J. A. Richter had also farmed there. The evidence of J. A. Richter is that he farmed there for one season and on that occasion only, some 18 years ago and that a man from the Northern Territories, whose name he did not know, but who was a sanitary labourer, farmed there as well. There was no evidence that he farmed there by the leave of the plaintiffs.
At that time there were no buildings on the surrounding land.
The land in dispute is situate just south of Ring Road.
Some time early in 1947 or thereabouts Sarah Aryeley Okine saw the first six defendants on the land and who started building and as a result she consulted her solicitor and issued this writ out of the Native Court.
The defendants Kweku Anor and Kwabena Ofori by their pleadings dated the 16th March, 1948 pleaded title by reason of a purchase from one J. A. Quaye, who had derived his title from the Kotey family.
On the day of the trial their counsel asked leave, and obtained leave, to amend their defence and clai