[1975]DLCA362 • December 5, 1975 • Court of Appeal
ATTAH AND OTHERS vs. ESSON
The plaintiffs, declared tenants in perpetuity of a large piece of land in the Central Region by prior judgments and arbitration awards, claimed damages and a perpetual injunction against the defendants for unlawfully entering the land and felling over 400 palm trees cultivated by the plaintiffs' family. The defendants admitted tenancy and entry but claimed customary law rights to enter and harvest palm trees on their land, whether planted by landlord or tenant.
read moreJUDGMENT OF AMISSAH J.A. Amissah J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The plaintiff and his family have been declared by a series of judgments and an arbitration award to be tenants in perpetuity of the first defendant’s family in respect of a large piece of land in the Central Region. In spite of these judgments the plaintiff and his people have been denied the quiet enjoyment of the land which they feel themselves entitled to. The latest act of the defendants which precipitated this action was the felling of palm trees which the plaintiff claimed his family had cultivated on the land. On account of this alleged interference with the plaintiff’s family’s right, the plaintiff brought this action claiming damages from the defendants and a perpetual injunction restraining them and their agents from having anything to do with the land. The case came up for trial before Archer J. (as he then was) sitting at Cape Coast in 1968. At the trial, counsel informed the court that the...