[2010]DLCA4621 • July 22, 2010 • Court of Appeal
DANSO AND ALAYEA vs. KWAKU SARPONG
The dispute concerns the status of the defendants occupying land adjoining the plaintiff's property, which blocks the plaintiff's access to the motorway. The defendants were found to be squatters without title to the land, which had been acquired by the government for motorway construction, extinguishing any prior title. The defendants' continued occupation was deemed illegal and unauthorized.
read moreAKAMBA, J.A: I have had the privilege of a preview of the learned decision rendered by my able brother Kusi Appiah, JA. I agree with him that the appeal be dismissed. I however have a few issues to highlight. The issue at stake is not so much a declaration of title to the plaintiff’s/respondent’s (herein after simply plaintiffs) land as much as the status of the defendants/appellants (herein after simply defendants) on the adjoining property to the plaintiff’s land which blocks plaintiff access to the motorway. If the trial court had narrowed down the issue this far the matter would have been resolved on this basis. The trial court found, rightly to my mind, that the defendants are squatters. Squatters are people who occupy abandoned or disused spaces that do not belong to them. In other words squatters occupy a space without permission. In the instant appeal the clear facts as amply brought out in the judgments of the trial court and my brother Kusi Appiah, J.A, show that the...