[1988]DLCA697 • July 14, 1988 • Court of Appeal
AMOAH vs. ARTHUR
The respondent/plaintiff claimed that in 1967 he borrowed ¢1,000 from Nana Yaw Asamoah and pledged his coconut farm at Mpatase near Agona Junction as security, with repayment of ¢2,000 within one week. He alleged that when he later sought to redeem the pledge, Nana Yaw Asamoah and, after his death, his customary successor refused to accept repayment and return possession. The appellant/defendant contended instead that the plaintiff had sold the coconut farm to Nana Yaw Asamoah, after which the plaintiff introduced the purchaser to the stool authorities of Mpatase, the land was surveyed, customary rites were performed, and a lease of the underlying stool land was executed in favour of Nana Yaw Asamoah as exhibit 1. The central dispute was therefore whether the transaction was a pledge or a sale of the plaintiff’s farming interest in the coconut farm. Portion of judgment: “The plaintiff claimed that the coconut farm in question was pledged...”; “The defence was that the plaintiff sold the coconut farm in dispute to the late Nana Asamoah.”
read moreJUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.S.C. The appeal is from the judgment of the High Court, Sekondi, delivered on 14 January 1983. The respondent (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff) sued one Opanyin Kwasi Asare (now deceased) for the recovery of possession of a coconut farm situated at Mpatase near Agona Junction in Sekondi District. While the appeal was pending, the said Kwasi Asare (hereinafter referred to as the defendant) died; and on the application of his customary successor, Joseph Kofi Amoah, the latter was substituted by this court on 30 May 1988. The action was commenced against the defendant, Kwasi Asare (deceased) in his capacity as the customary successor of the late Nana Yaw Asamoah. It is therefore to be noted that Nana Yaw Asamoah (deceased) was the person with whom the plaintiff entered into the transaction involving the coconut farm, and the nature of that transaction was the subject matter of the dispute before the High Court, Sekondi. The plaintiff claimed...