B D KUKUBOR & 5 ORS. vs. GHANA WATER COMPANY LTD [2010]DLCA6651

Date	2010-05-20
Suit No.	CIVIL APPEAL NO: H1/131/07
Citation No.	[2010]DLCA6651

G M QUAYE JA [PRESIDING]

C J HONYENUGA JA

IRENE C

DANQUAH JA

[2010]DLCA6651
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >B D KUKUBOR &amp; 5 ORS.<o:p></o:p>vs.<o:p></o:p>GHANA WATER COMPANY LTD<o:p></o:p>[COURT
OF APPEAL, ACCRA]<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">

CIVIL APPEAL NO: H1/131/07&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;DATE: 20TH MAY 2010<o:p></o:p>

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%;
border:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:1.0pt 0in 1.0pt 0in">JUDGMENT<o:p></o:p>

</div>IRENE C DANQUAH J A <o:p></o:p>This
appeal emanates from the judgment of the High Court, Accra dated 6th December
2006 whereby the trial court was satisfied that the Plaintiffs had proved their
claims on preponderance of the evidence before it and were therefore entitled
to judgment held that; <o:p></o:p>"1.&nbsp; I dismiss the counterclaims of the defendant
and enter judgment in favour of the Plaintiff. <o:p></o:p>2.&nbsp;
I declare that the Plaintiffs are tenants of the State Housing
Corporation in the flats popularly known as Flats L, M and N, Kanda Accra and
cannot be ejected by the defendants. <o:p></o:p>3.&nbsp;
I also order perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their
workmen, agents and or servants from forcibly ejecting the plaintiffs from the
said flats. <o:p></o:p>4.&nbsp;
Each party is to bear his or her own costs."<o:p></o:p>Prior
to the institution of the action, the Plaintiffs save the 3rd Plaintiff were
employees of the Defendant occupying flats popularly known as Flat L, M and N,
Kanda Accra.&nbsp; The 3rd Plaintiff’s deceased
husband who until his demise was an employee of the Defendant lived in flat L
with her and after his demise she continued to live there with her
children.&nbsp; The 6th Defendant’s father was
also an employee of the Defendant and lived in the property the subject matter
of dispute until his demise and thereafter she applied to the court and was
substituted for her deceased father in the action. <o:p></o:p>The
case of the Plaintiffs is that the flats in dispute are the property of the
State Housing Corporation now State Housing Company Limited.&nbsp; They traced the history of the flats to 1966
when the Ministry of Works and Housing wrote to the Ghana Housing Corporation
approving the allocation of the flats to a number of workers including the 2nd
Plaintiff and the husband of the 3rd Plaintiff.&nbsp;
The beneficiaries under the said allocation were to pay rent directly to
the Ghana Housing Corporation and were to be subjected to the terms of tenancy
and rules of the Corporation. <o:p></o:p>The
2nd Plaintiff and the husband of the 3rd Plaintiff who were among the original
beneficiaries were issued with rent cards by the Ghana Housing Corporation as
tenants.&nbsp; The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th
Plaintiffs averred that although they were let into the flats by the Defendant,
the latter did so as an agent of the State Housing Corporation, the true owners
of the flats.&nbsp; They averred further that
rents that the Defendant periodically deducted from the salaries of some of the
Plaintiffs were made payable to the State Housing Corporation as their
landlords.&nbsp; The Plaintiffs maintained
that although the Defendant had never been the owner of the disputed flats, it
had resorted to acts of intimidation and harassment by itself, servants and
agents with the intention of forcibly ejecting them from their respective
flats. <o:p></o:p>The
Plaintiffs therefore sought by their amended Writ the following reliefs: <o:p></o:p>"1.&nbsp; A declaration that the Plaintiffs are tenants
of the State Housing Corporation in the flats popularly known as Flats L, M,
&amp; N Kanda-Accra, and cannot be ejected by the Defendants. <o:p></o:p>2.&nbsp;
An order that all rents deducted from the salaries of the 1st, 2nd, 4th,
5th, 6th, 7th Plaintiffs and the husband of the 3rd Plaintiff by the Defendant
be paid by them to the State Housing <o:p></o:p>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;
An order that the Plaintiff continue to occupy the said flats as tenants
of the State Housing Corporation. <o:p></o:p>4.&nbsp;
A perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant, their workmen agents
and or servants from forcibly ejecting the plaintiffs from the said
flats". <o:p></o:p>The
Defendant vehemently denied the assertion of the Plaintiffs that the flats are
the property of the State Housing Corporation.&nbsp;
The Defendant in its Statement of Defence recounted the history of the
flats as follows: <o:p></o:p>In
1966, the flats were allocated by the then Government of the National
Liberation Council (NLC) to the personnel of the Water Supplies Division of the
Ministry of Works and Housing who had been transferred from Kumasi to Accra
after the overthrown of the First President of Ghana.&nbsp; The flats which were built by the First
President from the consolidated fund were originally allocated to officers of
the first President’s Security Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<o:p></o:p>The
Defendant alleged that for a period of less than a year, the original
beneficiaries of the allocation of the flats paid rents directly to the Ghana
Housing Corporation as the agent of the Government who in turn paid the rents
to the Accountant General.&nbsp; The Defendant
then took over the collection of rent, the maintenance and allocation of the
said flats to its employees.&nbsp; The
Defendant contended that the rent card that was issued to some of the
Plaintiffs by the Ghana Housing Corporation were issued solely to keep records
of rents collected and they were withdrawn when the Corporation ceased to
collect rents from the workers.&nbsp; The
Defendant contended further that hitherto, the Plaintiffs had always
acknowledged the Defendant as their landlord and had allowed rents to be
deducted from their salaries without any objection throughout the whole period
of their employment with the Defendant and are therefore estopped from denying
the Defendant as their landlord after leaving its employment.&nbsp; The Defendant continued that when the
Defendant became a Statutory Corporation, the Kanda Flats were capita</main>