[1965]DLSC1798 • April 12, 1965 • Supreme Court •
DOTWAAH AND ANOTHER vs. AFRIYIE
The case concerns a cocoa farm mortgaged by the first appellant (first defendant below) to the second appellant (second defendant below). The respondent (plaintiff below) claimed the farm as family property under customary law, asserting the mortgage was void as it was granted without the consent of the family, of which she claimed to be the successor. The farm was self-acquired property of Kwaku Addo, who died intestate in 1947, and by Akan matrilineal customary law, the property vested in his family. The plaintiff and those she represented were not consulted about the mortgage and protested against it. The dispute centered on family membership, succession, and validity of the mortgage.
read moreJUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.S.C. This is an appeal from a judgment of Apaloo J., as he then was, delivered in the High Court, Kumasi. The first appellant, the first defendant in the court below, had mortgaged the cocoa farm, the subject-matter of the suit, to the second appellant, the second defendant in the court below, and the claim of the respondent, the plaintiff in the suit, is for: (a) A declaration that the farm in dispute is family property, (b) A declaration that the mortgage of the farm is void and of no effect, (c) An order for recovery of possession, and (d) An order upon the second defendant to account for the proceeds of the farm from the date of his entry into possession of the farm to the date of judgment. The parties are agreed that the farm in dispute was the self-acquired property of one Kwaku Addo who died in or about 1947 intestate and is, therefore, by customary law the property of his family, which is a matrilineal family, Kwaku Addo being an Akan. It is also a...