[1959]DLSC2021 • June 25, 1959 • Supreme Court •
KWAMI vs. QUAYNOR
The appellant claimed title to a piece of land based on an oral grant by the Osu Stool in 1933, confirmed by a 1957 Deed of Conveyance. The respondent claimed title through a grant made in 1897 by the elders of Osu Alata Quarter to his father, who had undisturbed possession until his death in 1933. The dispute centered on the authority to grant the land and the validity of the appellant's title.
read moreIn this case the plaintiff - appellant, relying upon the oral grant to him of a certain piece of land by the Osu Stool in 1933 (confirmed by a Deed of Conveyance in 1957), sued the defendant - respondent for a declaration of title, damages for trespass and an injunction in respect of the said land. The defendant - respondent also laid claim to the land. He relied on a grant to his father, whom he had succeeded according to Osu native customary law. This grant was of a larger area, of which the disputed land forms part, and it had been made by the elders of Osu Alata Quarter in 1897. There was evidence, which the trial-judge accepted, that after the grant to him the respondent’s late father remained in undisturbed possession till his death in 1933, and also that the respondent’s brothers have built on another portion of the larger area granted to their late father. These were questions of fact which do not appear to have been in dispute, but the respondent challenged the right of...