[1977]DLCA1374 • June 21, 1977 • Court of Appeal
NYAASEMHWE AND ANOTHER vs. AFIBIYESAN
The plaintiff claimed allodial title to a parcel of land at Asafoa Gyintu, alleging ownership through his ancestors and succession from his uncle Ntrama. He permitted the late Busumprah to farm on the land. The defendants, successors to Busumprah, cultivated the land without the plaintiff's permission, prompting the plaintiff to seek a declaration of title and damages for trespass. The defendants claimed possessory or usufructuary title inherited from Busumprah, asserting lawful cultivation rights.
read moreJUDGMENT OF ANIN J.A This is an appeal by the defendants from the concurrent judgments of two lower courts in favour of the plaintiff in a suit for a declaration of title to a parcel of land, two poles square, at Asafoa Gyintu, and for ¢250.00 damages for the defendants’ “wrongful entry and cultivation of food crops upon the said land.” On the issue of title, the trial magistrate held that the plaintiff and his witnesses “had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the disputed land was owned by the plaintiff’s ancestors”. He also held that there had been a valid arbitration into the land case between the parties which ended in favour of the plaintiff; but that “what disturbed the mind of the court was the absence of the defendants at the inspection.” The doubt entertained by the magistrate about the legal effect of the defendants’ absence at the inspection of the locus in quo was dispelled by the learned judge of the Sekondi High Court who heard the first app...