ANAMAN vs. OSEI TUTU [1975]DLHC354

Date	1975-01-28
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1975]DLHC354

GRIFFITHS-RANDOLPH J.

YANKSON FOR THE PLAINTIFF.

S. M. CODJOE FOR THE DEFENDANT.

[1975]DLHC354
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >ANAMAN<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;vs. <o:p></o:p>OSEI TUTU<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;[HIGH
COURT, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>[1976] 1 GLR 111<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

DATE:
28 JANUARY 1975.<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">

YANKSON FOR THE PLAINTIFF.<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">

GRIFFITHS-RANDOLPH J.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF GRIFFITHS-RANDOLPH J.<o:p></o:p>In this
case, the plaintiff has sued the defendant claiming a declaration of title to a
piece of land at South Odorkor, Accra, and also damages for trespass, perpetual
injunction and recovery of possession.<o:p></o:p>On 29
April 1974 he obtained leave of the court to serve a notice of a motion for
interim injunction together with a writ of summons and statement of claim and
when Mr. Yankson, on behalf of the plaintiff, formally moved the court on 5
July 1974, he also referred to paragraphs (1)-(3) of the statement of claim,
pointing out that the root of their title dated back to 1965. He stated further
that the land was purchased by his client in 1966; also that the vendor got
appropriate government concurrence the following year and that four years later
the Sempe stool confirmed the transaction almost three months before the
defendant alleged that the same stool granted the land to him, so that the fact
that his client’s grant was registered in 1974 while the defendant registered
his the year before did not mean that he had a better title to the land. Furthermore
he said that the plaintiff ‘s warnings to the defendant against the latter’s
acts of trespass had been unheeded and that not only was the former entitled to
the order sought, but also it was in the interest of the latter that it should
be made.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>Mr.
Codjoe replied for the defendant that both parties had agreed that the land was
Sempe stool land; also Sempe stool land was not Maclean family land and the
family of Maclean, who was never the occupant of the Sempe stool, had no title
to the land, so that the grant, which according to the plaintiff‘s title deed
was made by the Maclean family of Accra, was void ab initio. Consequently, the
government’s confirmation of the grant to the plaintiff on 12 January 1971
which read: “This conveyance is concurred in and confirmed as being a
conveyance through a Sempe grantee by the Sempe Mankralo, Nii Samuel Parker
Allotey, for and on behalf of the Sempe stool” was meaningless, as it
contradicted the deed. Therefore since the grant to the plaintiff’s vendor was
void, the grant to the plaintiff also is void, and the confirmation by Bawa
Yakubu (i.e. the then National Liberation Council member responsible for the Ministry
of Lands and Mineral Resources) on 17 February 1967 cannot validate it, so that
the plaintiff had not established a prima facie title to the land. Even if the
grant to the plaintiff were to be regarded as a valid grant by the Sempe stool,
which also granted the land to the defendant, the latter’s grant would take
priority since the rule was that where land belongs to a particular stool the
first grantee of that stool who is first in time to register the grant to him
takes priority. He stated further that his client was in possession of the land
by 1 March 1974 when the plaintiff issued his first warning and that he had so
far spent ¢4,000.00 on the building he was putting up on it, but the building
operation had been temporarily suspended. He concluded that the plaintiff
perjured himself by saying in his affidavit that the defendant was building without
a building permit and he produced a building permit bearing the date 28 April
1972.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>Mr.
Yankson then explained that what they said was that the defendant had no
building permit because when they wrote to the Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area
Planning Office in 1970 they received a reply containing the following
paragraph:<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">&nbsp;“I however wish to take this opportunity to
inform you that the South Odorkor plan was prepared long before 1966, and the
probability is that Mr. J. A. Allotey knew that the land was zoned for
institutional purposes prior to selling it to you.”<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>He said
when the plaintiff bought the land and later learnt that the Sempe people had
been adjudged the owners of it, he (the plaintiff) went to them and they
confirmed the grant. This, according to counsel is what happens with purchase
of lands in this country.<o:p></o:p>