MARFO AND OTHERS vs. ADUSEI

The plaintiff/respondent had mortgaged certain cocoa farms to the first defendant to secure a loan of £G450. A dispute later arose over the mortgagee’s exercise of the power of sale. The respondent contended that the mortgage debt had been paid or substantially accounted for and that the appellants wrongfully caused two farms at Atamho to be sold by auction: one allegedly covered by the mortgage and another not covered by it at all. The fourth defendant purchased at the auction. The respondent further alleged that after the sale the purchaser entered the land, harvested cocoa and plantain, and thereby caused him loss. The Supreme Court accepted that there was evidence that one of the farms sold was not the mortgaged property but a different farm bounded on all sides by a road only. Portion indicating this in the judgment: “Learned counsel for the defendants wisely conceded before us that there was evidence that the wrong farm was sold. It follows then that the sale of the farm which is bounded on all sides by a road was not only unlawful but illegal and void ab initio and no title passed under it.”