[2014]DLCA4983 Login to Read Full Case <span style="font-size: 18px !important;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:#00B0F0">DEESA PENROSE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-left:0in;text-align:center; text-indent:0in;line-height:115%"><span class="NoSpacingChar"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">(PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT)<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><span class="NoSpacingChar"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"; color:#00B0F0">vs.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:#00B0F0">NII NUERTEY AKPO ‘1’<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><span class="NoSpacingChar"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">(DEFENDANT/RESPONDENT)<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><span class="NoSpacingChar"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"; color:#00B0F0"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">[COURT OF APPEAL, ACCRA]</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">C.A. NO: H1/22/2012</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">DATE: </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">13<sup>TH </sup>FEBRUARY, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">COUNSEL:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">MR. ATTA AKYEA FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"; letter-spacing:-.2pt">MR. ADUMUA BOSSMAN FOR THE DEFENDANT/RESPONDENT</span><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> </div><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">CORAM: </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">KANYOKE J.A. (PRESIDING), OFOE J.A., DZAMEFE J.A.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:115%; border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">JUDGMENT<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0in;text-indent:0in;line-height:115%"><b><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">KANYOKE, J.A.</span></u></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">: </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"">On the 18<sup>th</sup> day of October 2010, the High Court, Accra, after trial, dismissed the plaintiff/appellant’s action against the defendant/respondent for inter alia, a declaration of title to a large piece or tract of land situate, and lying at Aburi-Adomorobe along the Accra-Aburi road in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Feeling dissatisfied with the judgment the plaintiff/appellant (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff) has appealed to us to set aside the judgment and <b>“give direction on the area/portion of the land the plaintiff gave defendant”</b>. See page 218 of the Record of Appeal (ROA). The grounds of appeal canvassed by counsel for the plaintiff in his written submissions filed on 20-3-2012 are as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0in;text-indent:0in;line-height:115%; tab-stops:77.8pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0in;text-indent:0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""> <i>“1 The ruling is against the weight of evidence. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0in;text-indent:0in;line-height:115%; tab-stops:110.05pt"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;line-height:115%"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">2 The trial judge misapplied the law against the available evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;line-height:115%"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;line-height:115%"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">3 The trial judge misapplied the law/rule on estoppels.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0in;text-indent:0in;line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif"">Before proceeding to deal with the appeal on these grounds, it is important to give the background history or the relevant histories of how the parties came by their relative claims to the land in dispute as gathered from the Record of Appeal (ROA). At the time of the action in June 2001 the original plaintiff was the acting head of the Kwaakwa Asiampong Asakyiri family of Aburi-Adomorobe in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It is the case of the plaintiff that his ancestors/predecessors settled and founded the town called Adomorobe in the year 1772. According to the plaintiff, his family had a shrine called Osedu Akwatia which they placed in the forest and worshiped. The plaintiff said that some elders of the family particularly, one Owusu were made to settle around this shrine and set up a village to guard it so the settlement around the shrine came to be called the Osedu Forest or Oseduase or Seduase. The plaintiff’s case is further that subsequently some people from Kpone in the Greater Accra Region migrated from Kpone to Adomorobe and pleaded with the then head or leader of the plaintiff’s family called Owusu to be allowed to stay there and farm. The pleas of the migrant Kpone people were accepted by Opanin Owusu on Condition that they paid yearly tolls of fowls, eggs, yams, natural water, etc. to the Chief of Adomorobe during the celebration of the Osedu Shrine Festival; that condition was accepted by the Kpone people so they were allowed to settle and farm on various parts or portions of the Adomerobe land. Then in 1974, the plaintiff averred Nana Kwaakwa Asiampong II became the head of family and Chief of Adomorobe and caused the large tract of the Adomorobe land inclusive of the portions or parts settled on by the defendant’s predecessors to be demarcated and swore to a Statutory Declaration effectuating the ownership of the land in the plaintiff’s family. Nana Kwaakwa Asiampong II then submitted a plan of the demarcated land together with the Statutory Declaration to the Land Title Registry of the Lands Commission at Koforidua for registration and the land was subsequently registered in 1987 as No. 6721/1987. The plaintiff averred and testified that the predecessors of the defendant/respondent (hereinafter referred to simply as the defendant) were paying the yearly tolls to his family until somewhere in the 1990s when the defendant, claiming to be the chief of Seduase and leader of the