YOGUO AND ANOTHER v. AGYEKUM AND OTHERS
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- SARKODEE-ADOO C.J.
- OLLENNU
- LASSEY JJ.S.C
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Probate and Succession
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
1966
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiffs sought a declaration of title to a house they claimed was their father's self-acquired property, gifted to them under customary law. The defendants argued the house was jointly built by the plaintiffs' father and uncle and was family property. The High Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the defendants appealed, raising issues about the sufficiency of evidence and the validity of the customary gift. On appeal, the appellate court found that the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their claim, and the appeal was allowed, overturning the High Court's decision.
JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J. S. C
By their writ of summons filed in the High Court, Kumasi, the respondents (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiffs), claimed a declaration of title to a house situate at Yonso near Jamasi in Ashanti. Although the title of the suit leaves the impression that the appellants (hereinafter referred to as the defendants) were sued in their individual capacity, yet the pleadings and the whole of the proceedings make it quite clear that they were sued and they defended the suit in their capacity as representatives of a family to which the father of the plaintiffs, one Kwaku Agyekum, and his elder brother Kwadjo Agyekum, both deceased, belonged.
There is no dispute as to the identity of the property, the subject-matter of the suit; identical descriptions of it are given by the plaintiffs in their writ of summons and by the defendants in their statement of defence and counterclaim. The plaintiffs pleaded that the house was built by their father as his self-acquired property and that their father, by a gift inter vivos made in 1955 in accordance with customary law, transferred the ownership of it to them. The defendants on the other hand pleaded that it was built by the two brothers, Kwadjo Agyekum and Kwaku Agyekum, and that the same is family property.
The issues thus joined between the parties which unmistakably appear on the pleadings and upon the evidence as stated by the trial judge at the beginning of his judgment:
“Call for the determination of three main questions, namely, first: Was the house in dispute built solely by Kwaku Agyekum or was it the joint effort of Kwadjo and Kwaku Agyekum? Secondly, was a valid customary gift of this house made to the plaintiffs? And thirdly, was the house built on family land or on land which the late Kwaku Agyekum himself acquired from the Yonso stool.”
[p.485]
The trial judge resolved each of the three issues in favour of the plaintiffs. Against that judgment, the defendants appealed on the following six grounds:
“(1) The plaintiffs on whom the onus of proving that a perfect customary gift of the house in dispute was made to them in the presence of the elders of Yonso state and elders of the donor's family failed to discharge that onus inasmuch as none of the persons alleged to have been present was called to corroborate the plaintiffs' story.
(2) The plaintiffs on whom the onus of proving that the house in dispute was the self-acquired building of their late father on his self-acqui