MRS VIVIAN AKU-BROWN DANQUAH vs. SAMUEL LANQUAYE ODARTEY

The dispute concerned competing claims to ownership of a large tract of land near Abokobi in Greater Accra. The plaintiff/appellant/respondent claimed that the land, approximately 569 acres, belonged to the Adutso Family of Osu through settlement by her ancestor Ayi Blaflatsi in 1854, who established a village called Krobiwoho on the land. She asserted long-standing acts of ownership through family possession, tenant farmers, grants, and occupation. The defendant/respondent/appellant claimed that his family owned about 593 acres of the same land through an earlier settlement by his ancestor Nii Odartey Sro over 200 years ago, who allegedly established a village called Adanse. Both parties relied on traditional evidence and acts of ownership. The Supreme Court found that the plaintiff had sufficiently identified the land by survey plan and had proved better title through credible evidence of possession and ownership within living memory, especially through the testimony of long-standing tenant farmers and documentary dealings with the land. Portion of judgment: opening paragraphs describing the parties’ competing histories; and later portions beginning 'Plaintiff tendered a plan as Exhibit “B”...' and 'In sum the plaintiff led evidence of overt acts of possession and ownership of the land for about 100 years through the activities of her tenant farmers.'

PWAMANG, JSC. This case was commenced in May, 2006 in the High Court, Accra whereby the two parties claimed ownership of land near Abokobi in the names of their respective families. The parties pleaded two contrasting stories of how each of them acquired the land. The case of plaintiff/appellant/respondent, hereafter referred to as “plaintiff”, is that the land, containing approximately 569 acres, was acquired through settlement in 1854 by her ancestor called Ayi Blaflatsi who established a village on the land which was named “Krobiwoho”. She said her family, the Adutso Family of Osu, exercised rights of ownership over the land from that time to the time of the litigation. Defendant/respondent/appellant, to be referred to as “defendant”, on his part said his family land, which is about 593 acres, was first settled upon by his ancestor called Nii Odartey Sro over 200 years ago and that he established a village on the land and named it Adanse. He too said his family exercis...