SLOATENG & COMPANY LTD. VRS NATIONAL SPORTS AUTHORITY

INTRODUCTION

[1]. My Lords, the appeal before us presents a fundamental legal conundrum—one that sits at the uneasy intersection between textual fidelity to statutory form and the higher duty of the courts to do substantial justice. Too often, courts are confronted with situations where the formal appearance of legality—particularly a registered land title—conceals an underlying injustice. In such cases, the mechanical invocation of Statutory Provisions, such as those under the Land Title Registration Law, 1986 (PNDCL 152), has been used as a shield for inequity, enabling those with later but better- documentary claims to override the rights of those with longstanding possession and proven ownership. Yet our judicial oath does not bind us to unthinking literalism, but to the pursuit of justice through the conscientious application of law to fact. The courts must therefore guard against blind fidelity to text, especially where the text is manipulated to achieve what equity would plainly reject.

[2]. The present appeal illustrates that tension vividly. It arises from the judgment of the High Court (Land Division), Accra, delivered on 21st December 2020, which dismissed the Plaintiff’s claim to House No. 156, Ringway Estate, Osu, and entered judgment for the Defendant on its counterclaim. The High Court granted a declaration of title in favour of the Defendant and made consequential orders setting aside the Plaintiff’s lease and assignment, together with a direction to the Lands Commission to cancel the Plaintiff’s registration. The Plaintiff now challenges that decision before this Court. For clarity and consistency, the parties shall retain their original designations before the trial court: the Appellant shall be referred to herein as the Plaintiff, and the Respondent as the Defendant. The task before this Court, therefore, is not simply to construe the literal reach of PNDCL 152 or any other statutory instrument, but to determine whether, in the peculiar circumstances of this case, justice is best served by giving primacy to the form of registration or to the substance of right and possession. It is in resolving that delicate balance—between the letter of the law and the conscience of equity—that this appeal must find its answer.

[3].The Plaintiff’s case was that it lawfully acquired House No. 156, Ringway Estate, Osu, Accra (“the disputed property”) from Top Heights Capital Management Limited by a Deed of Assignment dated 20th February 2018 (*