AZAGBA AND OTHERS vs. NEGOV AND OTHERS

JUDGMENT OF ACOLATSE J.S.C. His lordship recited the facts and set out the issues which were based mainly on conflicting traditional history and continued:] This is not a claim for recovery of possession. It is a claim by the plaintiffs seeking the relief for a declaration of title to the land at Mepe in dispute against the defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that the land was founded by their ancestor Whulor about 500 years ago. The defendants say their ancestors were on the land before they, the plaintiffs, arrived. We are thrown back from the nineteenth century to the fifteenth century on verbal tradition transmitted from one generation to generation. The possession of the area in dispute by the defendants is admitted by the plaintiffs though they sought to neutralize the admission by claiming that they, the plaintiffs, put the defendants’ ancestors on the land as caretakers. In my view the presumption of title raised by the defendants’ possession increased by length of time and...