VERONICA POKU v. MARY LARTEY

KUSI-APPIAH, J.A:

The simple issue in this appeal is the factual one of determining whether the plaintiff (now respondent) or her son Richard Peprah (now deceased) is the rightful owner of the disputed land.

In my view that issue was elaborately pleaded and adequately canvassed at the trial to obviate any blurring of it. I turn first to the pleadings. In paragraph 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the statement of claim, the plaintiff alleged that by virtue of an agreement concluded between her as purchaser and one DORIS LOLONYO HOTSE as the vendor evidenced by an indenture dated 20th day of June, 2000, she purchased the disputed property in this case and put her son Richard Peprah in occupation of same and left for the United States of America.

The plaintiff avers that Richard Peprah having passed away, defendant (now appellant) is currently in occupation of the disputed property without her consent for which reason the plaintiff demanded in vain that defendant immediately quit the disputed property and give vacant possession of same to her. However, the defendant has not only persistently defied plaintiff’s demand for vacant possession but also denied plaintiff’s title to the property, the subject matter of dispute in this case.

For her part, the defendant in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the defence, countered that the disputed property was acquired by plaintiff’s son Richard Peprah out of monies he earned as compensation in damages for negligence in a motor accident case in 1994. Although defendant concedes that the document to the disputed property was prepared in plaintiff’s name, it is the case of the defendant that plaintiff’s son, Richard Peprah, not merely exercised overt acts of ownership over the subject property until he married defednant’s sister, Mrs. Iris Cecilia Peprah, but that Richard Peprah actually co-habited with defendant’s sister, Mrs. Iris Cecilia Peprah in the disputed property, rented same to Mrs. Janet Otchere and subsequently granted defendant their leave and license to stay in the disputed property as a caretaker to avoid same standing empty. According to the defendant, she therefore went into occupation of the disputed property with her husband as caretaker and has remained in possession of same since 2002.

The defendant avers that subsequent to his marriage to her sister (Mrs. Iris Cecilia Peprah), the plaintiff’s son, Richard Peprah, requested Madam Efe Ampoma Mensah to change the document to the disputed property from plai