THOMAS FOSU-TWUM & DR. T. A. OSAE v. THEOPHILUS NORTEY
2018
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- ADINYIRA (MRS), JSC (PRESIDING)
- DOTSE, JSC
- BAFFOE-BONNIE, JSC
- AKOTO-BAMFO (MRS), JSC
- APPAU, JSC
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Civil Procedure
2018
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over land ownership and competing titles. The 1st Plaintiff had initially occupied and developed the land before the Defendant acquired a conflicting title and began developing the land. The High Court ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs, but the Court of Appeal reversed this decision, leading to the Supreme Court appeal. The Defendant claimed he was a bona fide purchaser but failed to convince the Court due to evidence of reckless disregard for warnings about the disputed title. The Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's decision and dismissed the Defendant's appeal, affirming the Plaintiff's better title to the land.
ADINYIRA (MRS), JSC:-
This appeal is against a judgment of the Court of Appeal dated 6 February 2013 which reversed the judgment of a High Court delivered on 21 October 2010.The issue for resolution at the High Court was one of competing titles to a plot of land covering an approximate area of 0.18 acres leased to the parties before us by feuding claimants of a larger tract of land in the case of Agyei Osae & Ors v Adjeifio & Ors [2007-2008] SCGLR 499 as to who owns the allodial title to an area of 1170.96 acres of land at Otinshie stretching from off the Accra- Tema motorway to the Akwapim Hills.
A Court of Appeal judgment, delivered on 15 July 2005, in Agyei Osae & Ors v Adjeifio & Ors, supra, reversed a High Court decision declaring ownership of this large track of land to the Nii Osae Otinshie family, by granting title to the Kle Musum Quarter of Teshie. The Court of Appeal however held that “whatever rights the [Nii Osae Otinshie family] had in Otinshie are usufructury and limited to the areas they have effectively reduced in their possession and the immediate environs. This usufructury is subordinate to the allodial title of the Kle Musum Quarter land.”
On appeal by the Nii Osae family, the Supreme Court in Agyei Osae & Ors v Adjeifio & Ors, supra, affirmed the Court of Appeal judgment that the Kle Musum Quarter owned the quarter land up to the Akwapim hills but reversed the finding that the Nii Osae Otinshie family owned the usufruct in Otinshie village and its environs by holding that that the said family owned the allodial title as they founded Otinshie village years before the Teshie lands were shared among the various Quarters of Teshie.
With this backdrop let us turn to the appeal before us.
The 1st plaintiff/appellant/respondent [1st Plaintiff] is a trustee of the land for his children and the 2nd Plaintiff (since deceased) was the head and lawful representative of the Osae Family of Teshie which made a grant of the said land to the 1st Plaintiff which was evidenced in writing by an indenture dated 15 March 1997 and was registered. The Defendant /Respondent/Appellant [Defendant] is an estate developer in Accra.
The 1st Plaintiff’s case was that he went into possession of the plot of land by constructing a fence wall and a two bedroom outhouse on it and put in a caretaker until the latter vacated the house in 2005 without his knowledge. The 1st Plaintiff said the Defendant forcibly entered the land and hastily developed the land a