SERAPHIM vs. AMUA-SEKYI

This appeal is from the judgment of the High Court, Accra, which Ollennu J. (as he then was) delivered on 7 May 1962. By that judgment, the court dismissed a claim by the appellant for recovery of possession and damages for trespass to two plots of land said to be situate at Opete Kpakpo (Abossey Okai) and sustained a counterclaim by the respondent for a declaration of title to a portion of that land. The parties derived title from two rival grantors, the appellant from the Akumadjey stool, while the respondent obtained his from Korkoi Abossey who herself relied on a deed of gift made in her favour by Nii Abossey Okai in October 1929. But the parties themselves relied on deeds of conveyance, the appellant’s dating back from 1947 while the respondent’s bore the date September 1960. The evidence shows that soon after obtaining the two plots of land in 1947, the appellant caused them to be fenced. He then put a watchman in charge of them. At some time before the writ issued, the...