EDUFUL AND ANOTHER vs. PANTSIL

JUDGMENT OF APALOO J.S.C. This is an appeal from the judgment of the High Court which set aside a decision of the Gomoa Assin Local Court in a land matter. The appellants claimed that a piece of land which was said to be situate at a place called Gomoa Hwida and commonly referred to as Osibum belonged to their ancestors. They complained that the respondent trespassed onto that land and removed therefrom ancestral stones called “Apimii.” Accordingly, they sought against him in the local court, damages for trespass and a perpetual injunction. The appellants gave the boundaries of the land. The respondent denied that the land belonged to the appellants’ ancestors and for his part, claimed that it was land part of which his ancestors settled upon for about 200 years. He said he, and his forbears before him, had lived on the land undisturbed for many years. With regard to the ancestral stones which sparked off the present litigation, the respondent claimed them as his own. He admi...