[1966]DLHC1738 • February 10, 1966 • High Court
OTOO vs. BINEY AND ANOTHER
The plaintiff purchased a piece of land at Aboom Wells Road, Cape Coast, by auction for £G600 and took possession of the land including premises on the western portion. The defendant trespassed on the land by erecting pillars and commencing building operations despite warnings. The defendant claimed to have purchased the disputed land from the codefendant, who was administrator de bonis non of the estate of the original owner, and registered his deed of conveyance. The plaintiff's deed was unregistered. The defendant argued that as a purchaser for value without notice and with a registered deed, his title had priority over the plaintiff's unregistered conveyance. The plaintiff claimed possession and relied on the invalidity of the codefendant's power to convey the land.
read moreThe plaintiff by her writ of summons claimed damages for trespass committed by the defendant on the plaintiff’s land and prayed further for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant. The plaintiff’s case is that she bought for £G600 a piece of land at Aboom Wells Road, Cape Coast, by auction conducted by private treaty by a licensed auctioneer named Essien. As a result of this sale a deed of conveyance, exhibit B, was executed in her favour by the vendor William Essuman-Gwira Sekyi, the administrator de bonis non of the estate of William Edmund Pieterson deceased of Cape Coast. Immediately after the sale she took possession of the land which included premises situated on the western portion of the land. In the year 1962, the plaintiff discovered that the defendant had trespassed on the land by erecting pillars and by commencing building operations notwithstanding the plaintiff’s warnings to the defendant to keep off the land. The defendant’s case is that he approached t...