YIRENKYI v. SAKYI
1989
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- OSEI-HWERE JSC
- AMPIAH
- ESSIEM JJA
Areas of Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Probate and Succession
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
- Conflict of Laws
1989
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Osei-Hwere JSC, writing for a unanimous appellate panel with Ampiah JA and Essiem JA concurring, resolved a generational dispute over a cocoa farm at Abesim near Suhum on Akyem-Abuakwa stool land. The case involved the Amoakare family of Akropong-Akwapim and descendants of Kwaku Bekoe. Opanin Kwaku Mabre (later substituted by his brother, Kwabena Twum Sakyi) claimed the land was purchased by Kofi Amoah and gifted to his sister Ampeaa’s children as family property, and that he later became owner, appointing Bekoe’s son as caretaker and seeking accounts and injunction when accounting ceased. The defendant counterclaimed for declaration of title and injunction, asserting Krobo patrilineal succession and that Bekoe self-acquired the land. The appellate court rejected the trial court’s misapprehensions, held Exhibit B inadmissible, allowed an amendment, applied personal law rather than the lex situs, determined Bekoe’s personal law was patrilineal, found the farm was self-acquired by Bekoe, dismissed the plaintiff’s action, and granted the defendant’s counterclaim with costs.
JUDGMENT OF OSEI-HWERE JSC
The result of this appeal, in one aspect, is pivoted on the personal customary law of Kwaku Bekoe, deceased. The said Kwaku Bekoe was the father of the defendant and the maternal cousin, once removed, of both Opanin Kwaku Mabre, the deceased plaintiff, and his substitute, Kwabena Twum Sakyi. Sakyi is a younger brother of the full blood to Mabre. The maternal family of Bekoe, Mabre and Sakyi has its seat at Akropong-Akwapim and goes by the name of Amoakare. The farm that launched the dispute between the parties is situate at Abesim, near Suhum on Akyem-Abuakwa stool land. It was commonly agreed that the forest land was originally reduced under cultivation by Bekoe.
An important point of divergence between the disputants was as to the original acquisition of the Abesim land. As pleaded in paragraph 4 of the plaintiffs statement of claim, the Abesim land (on which the farm was cultivated) was purchased by the maternal uncle of Bekoe called Kofi Amoah who "gave it as a gift to the children of his late sister Ampeaa to cultivate for themselves as family property." Ampeaa was the mother of Bekoe. It was further pleaded by the plaintiff that Bekoe, as the son of Ampeaa, came to cultivate the said land into a cocoa farm on behalf of himself and his brothers and sisters. The defendant resisted the source of the original acquisition of the land by Kofi Amoah as pleaded and maintained, by way of defence, that his father originally acquired the forest land by purchase and cultivated it as his personal property.
It was further averred in the statement of claim that on the death of Bekoe, the farm came to other members of the family by right of succession until it eventually came to the late Kwasi Patape who on his death was succeeded by the plaintiff (Mabre) who thus became the owner of the property. According to the plaintiff, he appointed the defendant caretaker to supervise the "abusa" tenants on the land and collect on his behalf the "abusa" proceeds. The defendant, as averred, duly accounted to him for the first year of his caretakership (that is, during the 1980-81 cocoa season) but refused to account to him for the 1981-82 cocoa season. This gave the plaintiff cause to sue for accounts and injunction to restrain the defendant from interfering with the farm.
The broad stand taken by the defendant in opposition to the plaintiff was that on the death of his father his younger brother Kofi, Yirenkyi succeeded to the farm on behalf of B