GYIMAH vs. KUMAH [1959]DLHC2013

Date	1959-04-20
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1959]DLHC2013

OLLENNU J.

OSEI TUTUT (HOLDING BOATENG’S BRIEF) FOR PLAINTIFF (GYIMAH) E.

OBETSEBI-LAMPTEY FOR AKUFO-ADDO FOR DEFENDANT (KUMAH)

[1959]DLHC2013
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" ><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">GYIMAH<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">&nbsp;vs. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">KUMAH<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;[HIGH COURT (LANDS DIVISION), ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[1959] GLR 196<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

DATE:
20TH APRIL, 1959.<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

OSEI TUTUT
(HOLDING BOATENG’S BRIEF) FOR PLAINTIFF (GYIMAH) E. OBETSEBI-LAMPTEY FOR
AKUFO-ADDO FOR DEFENDANT (KUMAH)<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM:
<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

OLLENNU J.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.<o:p></o:p>This is
an appeal from a judgment of the Kwahu Local Court “A” given on the 12th
August, 1958, declaring certain 10 farms to be property of the plaintiff’s
family stool, the Siao Stool of Twenedurase.<o:p></o:p>The
following facts are not in dispute:-<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(i) the
plaintiff is the present occupant of the Siao Stool;<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(ii) the
land on which the farms in dispute are situate, Kyikyiwah land, and the
villages thereon, belonged to the said Siao, and are now property of the
plaintiff’s stool;<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(iii) the
parents of the defendant (Kumah), Gyenyereh and Nyamewah, were not blood
relations of the said Siao. They came from the former Northern Territories (now
Northern Ghana), but they stood in a certain relationship to the said Siao,
which was such that the defendant, their son, is now obsorbed into the Siao
family, and is one of the elders of the family, and recognizes the plaintiff as
his head of family;<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(iv) the
defendant, as a principal member of the said family, has twice been made lead
of Besease village, and family’s principal village on the said Kyikyiwah land.
The defendant’s present appointment as head of that village was made by the
plaintiff.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
plaintiff’s case is that the parents of the defendant were slaves of the late
Siao, and that they, together with other slaves of the said Siao, worked on and
extended farms which Siao had made on his land (the said Kyikyiwah land) prior
to acquiring those slaves; and that whatever farms the slaves made they made
for their masters, and never had their separate individual farms. The plaintiff
claimed the 10 farms as some of the farms made in this way.<o:p></o:p>The defendant
put up three or four different stories:<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(1) his
parent were strangers from the Northern Territories who lodged with the said
Siao. They were not slaves of Siao. The farms in dispute were made by his
father Gyenyereh on land given to him by Siao.<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(2) his
father, who had lodged with Siao, went back to the Northern Territories and
brought more people, who joined him in lodging with Siao. His said father, and
each of those strangers, made farms on the land with Siao’s permission. Those
other Northern Territories men predeceased his father, and his father thereupon
inherited the farms made by those people. Some of the 10 farms in dispute are
farms which his said father so succeeded to, and which he (1st defendant has
now inherited;<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">(3) his
father accompanied the late Siao to war against the Ewes. During that war his
father captured some men, whom he gave to Siao on their return from the war.
Siao then put him and those captives to work on the said Kyikyiwah land, and to
build the villages thereon. Some of the farms now in dispute w</main>