SOLACE ADOGLA & 1 ORS VS NANA ESSEL II & 4 ORS
August 14, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- JUSTICE AFIA SERWAA ASARE-BOTWE (MRS.)
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Tort Law
August 14, 2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Ghana High Court, per Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, adjudicated a land dispute concerning a 99-year lease over approximately 375.845 acres at Buduburam, Gomoa-Assin Traditional Area, originally granted in 1977 to Gabriel Awuku Adoglah by Nana Abor Ewusi XIX with requisite stool consents. Adoglah’s executors sued multiple parties, including a caretaker chief (1st Defendant) and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (5th Defendant), alleging encroachment and unauthorized construction that disrupted a planned estate development. The court emphasized the civil standard of proof and assessed the record, finding Exhibit B, a duly stamped and registered indenture, conferred broad permitted uses beyond farming. It rejected the defendants’ unpleaded assertions and deemed any purported re-entry void for noncompliance with section 29 of the Conveyancing Decree. Applying nemo dat, later grants by the same grantor were null. Defendants’ unstamped and unregistered instruments had no legal effect. The court granted declarations, recovery, cancellation of inconsistent records, perpetual injunction, damages for trespass, and costs, concluding that building during pending litigation carried inherent risk.
FACTS
The facts that have given rise to this case are that on the 3rd of February, 2011, the Plaintiffs, suing in their capacities as Executors of the Estate of
the late Gabriel Awuku Adoglah (Deceased), issued a writ in this Court claiming the following reliefs;A declaration that the Plaintiffs are entitled to the Leasehold estate and absolutely to ALL THAT PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND comprising 152.07 Hectares or 375.845 Acres situate lying and being at Buduburam in the Gomoa- Assin Traditional Area in the Winneba District in the Central Region of the Republic of Ghana bounded on the North by Lessor’s Land measuring 1,183 feet more or less; on the South by Lessor’s Land measuring 2,332 feet more or less; on the East by the Nguabadzi Stream and the Lessor’s Land measuring 8,205 feet more or less; on the West by Lessor’s Land measuring 6,788 feet more or less and covering an approximate area of 152.07 Hectares or 375.845 Acres more or less.
a. Recovery of possession.
b. An order that any and/or all the Defendant(s) cancel/delete any Conveyance, Deed of Assignment, Lease Agreement or any other document(s) on the Land Register or otherwise inconsistent with the Plaintiff’s Registered Document of Title.
c. An Order of Perpetual Injunction to retrain the Defendants whether by themselves , their servants, agents or otherwise howsoever from or doing the following acts or any of them, that is to say, trespassing on the said piece or parcel of land by otherwise bypassing and re-passing over, building on it or carrying out thereon any building operations or otherwise.
d. An order for the breaking down of any /all of the structures on the land.
e. Damages for Trespass.
f. Any further or other reliefs.
This case has seen several amendments and changes to the parties. Eventually, the amended writ of summons filed on the 8th of April, 2015 was the one that was the final one on which this case is founded.
THE PLAINTIFFS’ CASE
The case of the Plaintiffs in sum is that they are the administrators of the estate of the late Gabriel Awuku Adoglah. The case of the Plaintiffs simply put is that the late Gabriel Awuku Adoglah acquired the land in dispute, situate at Bububuram-Awutu, with an approximate area of 375/845 acres described in great detail, in the schedule to a lease dated the 11th of August 1977 made between Nana Abor Ewusi the XIX, Fettehene of Gomoa Assin Traditional Area in the Central Region with the requisite consents for a period of Ninety-Nine (99) year