[1959]DLHC2015 • April 7, 1959 • High Court
IN RE THE PUBLIC LANDS (LEASEHOLD) ORDINANCE AND IN RE LAND ACQUIRED AT ACCRA FOR PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT WORKSHOP OSU MANTSE & ORS. (CLAIMANTS)
The Government acquired a piece of land in Accra under the Public Lands Leasehold Ordinance, issuing a Certificate of Title in 1955. Multiple claimants, including the Osu Mantse and the Acting Gbese Mantse representing various stools, and Nii Yeboa Nortey claiming as head of the Nii family and Dsasetse of Ashanti Blohum, asserted entitlement to compensation. The dispute centered on ownership and rights to compensation for the land acquired, with reference to prior boundary determinations and customary land tenure practices.
read moreThis matter came before the Court under section 13 of the Public Lands (Leasehold) Ordinance, for the Court to determine which of the claimants is (or are) entitled to compensation for a piece of land acquired by the Government under Certificate of Title granted by the Court on the 1st February, 1955, by virtue of section 8 of the said Ordinance. The principal claimants are the 1st claimant (the Osu Mantse) and the 3rd claimant (the Acting Gbese Mantse, who claims on behalf of the Ga Stool, the Gbese Stool and the Korle We Stool). The claims of these two groups are made with reference to a boundary fixed between them in the judgment of Jackson J., delivered on the 31st May, 1951, in suits popularly known as the Kokomlemle Consolidated Suits, and confirmed by a judgment of the West African Court of Appeal (14 W.A.C.A. 676). So far as the dispute between these two principal groups is concerned, therefore, the matter is res judicata. The 2nd claimant, Nii Yeboa Nortey, claims in the...