Appeal Court
24th Feb. 1940. Appeal from
decision of the Chief
Commissioner of Ashanti's
Court.
Judgments
of Chief Commissioner and
Asantehene's Court" A " set
aside-Judgment of Asantehene's
Court" B " restored.
The facts are
sufficiently set out in the
judgment.
A. S.
Evelyn Brown for Appellant.
E. C.
Quist for Respondent.
The following
joint judgment was delivered :-
KINGDON, C.J.,
NIGERIA, PETRIDES, C.]., GOLD
COAST AND BANNERMAN, J.
This case has
had a very chequered career. It
is not necessary for the
purposes of this judgment to go
otherwise than briefly into the
various stages which have
resulted in this appeal being
again heard by this Court.
Plaintiff
commenced proceedings in the
Asantehene's Court " B" held at
Kumasi by swearing the great
Oath to the effect that he is
the owner of that parcel of land
situate and lying on " Kyim
Kwayem " and the Defendant also
responded to the effect that he
and the Plaintiff own the land.
As was stated in the judgment of
this Court dated the 24th April,
1937, it is clear from the
proceedings that by his response
the Defendant did not mean that
he and Plaintiff were joint
owners of the whole land, but
that they each owned part of it
with a boundary between them;
there is no dispute that part of
the land Kyim Kwayem belongs to
the Plaintiff.
After hearing
evidence the Asantehene's Court
"B," in accordance with native
custom, deputed five of its
members to view the area in
dispute and submit a report.
They did so. Their report
however was impossible to follow
upon the plans which were
available when this appeal last
came before this Court. Hence an
Order was made for a proper plan
of the area in dispute to be
prepared. Exhibit L is the
result and with it the
inspection report is easy to
follow. It shows indeed that the
deputation carried out their
duties with great care and in an
exemplary manner.
From the
report it will be seen that the
Plaintiff and the Defendant
showed the deputation what they
claimed to be their respective
boundaries. The Defendant's
claim met with no dispute from
any third party. In the case of
the Plaintiff, however, his
original claim was for the whole
of the area edged green on Plan
" L," and whilst he was showing
what he alleged was his land in
the southern part of this area,
Kwame Mosi, the Odikro of Aku,
swore the great Oath that the
land Plaintiff was claiming in
that part was not the Paintiff's
but belonged to his people;
again when the Plaintiff was
pointing out what he claimed to
b2 his land north of the source
of the Ahiresu stream the Ohene
of Kwarso also swore the great
Oath that the land indicated did
not belong to the Plaintiff but
to Kwarso.
The Plaintiff
did not respond to either oath.
The land claimed by the Odikro
of Aku is edged pink, while that
claimed by tne Ohene of Kwarso
is edged brown in Plan " L ".
The
deputation, having eliminated
these two areas, proceeded to
consider who was the owner of
the land claimed by the
Defendant. This land is edged
yellow on Plan " L " and is
hereinafter referred to as the
land in dispute. There is some
dispute ;JS to whether the
Plaintiff produced one or two
plans to the deputation. We are
satisfied that he produced one
only. The Defendant also
produced a plan. The Plaintiff's
plan is marked Exhibit "C" and
the Defendant's Exhibit" D ".
The
proceedings in this Court were
conducted until after the Court
had reserved judgment on the
assumption that the plan
produced by Plaintiff to Court "
B " had been lost. It was only
thereafter that Counsel for
Plaintiff informed the Court
that the plan in question was
that marked" c." That plan, as
hereinafter appear~, is of great
importance.
The
deputation found that
Plaintiff's plan showed a pillar
marked B.V.A.21 128 /13
near Boadjiwa Nkwanta as the
head boundary between Ejisu,
Plaintiff's and another Stool,
the name of which was not
mentioned on the plan. This
plan, they stated, showed that
all lands on the left side of
the road from the pillar near
Hoadjiwa Nkwanta to stream Wunwa
was a Stool property and from
stream 'Wunwa going towards
Odumasi all lands on the left
hand side of the road was
Plaintiff's land. After
examining the Defendant's plan
they came to the conclusion that
the un-named Stool, which owned
the land shown on Plaintiff's
plan, was in fact the
Defendant's Stool and that the
Defendant owned the land in
dispute.
The
Asantehene's Court "B" after
considering this report gave
judgment for the Defendant
stating that they were satisfied
that the land in dispute was the
property of the Defendant.
The
Asantehene's Court" A " on
appeal after hearing further
evidence reversed the judgment
of the Asantehene's Court" B "
.•
From this
judgment the Defendant appealed
to the Court of the Chief
Commissioner of Ashanti which
dismissed that appeal on the
ground that it was bound by an
executive decision given by
Captain Hobart, District
Commissioner on the 19th
February, 1907, and validated by
Ashanti Ordinance No. 7 of 1929
section 3 (1).
On appeal
this Court held, for the reasons
given in its judgment, that the
Hobart decision fixed a boundary
not between Ejisu and the.
Plaintiff alone but between
Ejisu and both Plaintiff and
Defendant, leaving open the
question of boundary as between
Plaintiff and Defendant and that
the Court of the Chief
Commissioner of Ashanti was not
bound by this executive decision
to find for Plaintiff, and
remitted the case for it to be
heard on its merits.
The Court of
the Chief Commissioner of
Ashanti reheard the case and
again upheld the judgment of the
Asantehene's Court" A." The case
again came before this Court on
appeal and this Court finding
that the land claimed appeared
to be far more extensive than
the land actually awarded to the
Plaintiff by the judgment of the
Chief Commissioner's Court and
that the absence of a proper
plan to scale made it impossible
to follow the inspection report
in the original trial Court or,
indeed, to ascertain more than
roughly the position of the land
awarded or its area, adjourned
the hearing of the appeal to
enable a proper plan to be made
and for the Chief Commissioner's
Court to amend its judgment by
reference to the new plan.
The Chief
Commissioner's Court caused plan
marked "L" to be made and after
reconsidering its judgment in
the light of this plan again
confirmed the judgment of the
Asantehene's Court ." A."
In the
judgment of Asantehene's Court"
A " it is stated that the
appellant based his appeal upon
a series of judgments of the
English Courts in respect of the
land of which the portion in
dispute formed part. That Court
gave no reason for its judgment
but seems to have been impressed
by the action Omanhene
Kwabena Wusu versus Chief Yaw
Nimo, to which we shall
refer later.
That Court
held that the land in dispute
was the property of the
Plaintiff and that the land
edged pink in plan " L" was land
originally owned by the
Defendant and sold to the Odikro
of Aku over 90 years before.
The Chief
Commissioner of Ashanti's Court
in its judgment of the 16th
August, 1937, stated that the
evidence was" almost wholly
confined to that of the various
disputes which have raged
concerning ownership of the land
in that vicinity and it is
noteworthy that with the
exception of that with K warso
that the name of Dumfeh does not
appear as a party."
The disputes
that concerned the land in
dispute and the neighbouring
land are the following :-
1.
Boundary dispute between Kumasi
and Ejisu.
II.
Sub-Chief Kwabena Dumfeh versus
Sub-Chief Kojo Ntaka.
III. Chief
Yaw Nimo versus Omanhene Kojo
Buateng. IV. Omanhene
Kwabena Wusu versus Chief Yaw
Nimo.
As to I it
suffices to say that this was a
boundary dispute which resulted
in what has been referred to as
the Hobart decision in which
Captain Hobart laid down the
boundaries between Ejisu on one
side and the Plaintiff's and
Deiendant's predecessors
(Kumasi) on the other. Captain
Hobart did not define the
r~spective lands of the
Plaintiff's and the Defendant's
predecessors who were both
parties to the proceedings.
As to II.
This was an action by the
present Defendant against the
Omanl1ene of Kwarso. It
concerned a piece of land marked
A. 10/29 on plan" E " which is
adjacent to the land in dispute.
In that. action a plan " ]) "
was produced. According to that
plan the land in dispute in the
present case was shown as
claimed by the present Defendant
and Ejisu while that to the
north-west as claimed by Kwarso
and the parties to this action.
It was this plan that was
produced to the deputation by
the Defendant. There is nothing
in this plan which tells against
the Defendant; . on the contrary
it shows, for what it is worth,
the consistency of his claim to
the area now in dispute.,
As to. III.
This was a dispute by the
present Plaintiff, as Plaintiff,
against Ejisu about land which
lay north of the land in dispute
in the present proceedings. A
plan (Exhibit" C ") drawn by
Messrs. Anoff and Gimmel was put
in by the Plaintiff. This is the
plan which the present Plaintiff
produced to the deputation.
As to IV.
This was an action by the
Ejisuhere against the present
Plaintiff in which the Ejisuhene
sued the present Plaintiff for
'unlawful entry and trespass on
his lands containing the hamlets
of Amancesi, Brosankro, Bushyen
and Ahyiresu. These hamlets are
on the land in dispute. If that
action had gone to trial and the
present Defendant had known
about the action and not
intervened it might well have
been regarded as an admission
that the land in dispute was not
his. That action did not go to
trial for the Ejisuhene
discovered that the hamlets were
outside his land and he withdrew
his claim.
It will thus
be seen that the Defendant was a
party to disputes I and II. In,
our opinion no significance can
be attached to the fact that the
present Defendant was not a
party to disputes III and IV.
Plan "c"
which was produced by the present
Plaintiff in dispute III and to
the deputation is of great
importance. It will be seen that
on this plan the land directly
north of the land in dispute is
boldly marked "DOYEN" While the
land -which lay south of the
Wunwa and on the left of the
path from the pillar at Boadjo
Nkwanta to Odumasi, i.e. the
land in dispute, was merely
marked " Stool land" in small
letters. Comparison of this plan
with the plan " D ", which .the
Defendant produced to the
deputation and which he had used
in dispute II, greatly
influenced the deputation a~d
the Asantehene's Court" B'''' in
coming to the conclusion that
the land in dispute belonged to
the Defendant. No doubt the
deputation and the Court were
also impressed by the clear
demonstration of his claim which
the Defendant gave on the land.
There can be
no doubt, also, that the fact
that the Plaintiff claimed areas
edged pink and brown
respectively and did not respond
to the Oaths of Aku and Kwarso
respectively must have carried
great weight with the
Asantehene's Court "B." It
certainly does with this Court.
Great stress
has been laid by Plaintiff's
Counsel on the fact that pillar
A.I0 /29 /2 has been admitted by
the Plaintiff and the Defendant
and Kwarso to be their common
boundary and that fact supports
the Plaintiff's claim and is
certainly difficult to reconcile
with the Defendant's. A possible
explanation is that Exhibit" L "
shows too much land as K warso's
and that Plaintiff has land
running down to that pillar
between Kwarso's and Defendant's
land, but it is no part of the
duty of this Court on this
appeal to consider whether the
Kwarso claim to the whole of the
area edged brown is well
founded. In any event this one
point is not sufficient to
outweigh the other very strong
points in Defendant's favour. It
was not the ratio decidendi
in either the Asantehene's
Court " A " or the Court of the
Chief Commissioner. There is one
other point which should be
mentioned to avoid confusion. In
its judgment dated 27th April;
1937 this Court mentioned a line
between the pillars marked
"10/29/2" and "v:
21/28/1." The line referred to
is not an imaginary straight
line drawn between those points
but the irregular line shown on
Exhibit" A ", passing partly
along the Wunwa stream and
subsequently through Duponase.
The so-called line is edged
partly brown and partly yellow
on Exhibit ." L "
The trial of
land cases in Ashanti as in the
Gold Coast Colony is entrusted
by law to Native Tribunals.
These Tribunals have their own
methods of ascertaining where
the truth lies. The Asantehene's
Court" B " has decided this case
upon an inspection in situ
and upon plans not made for
the purpose of this action but
upon plans whichh each party had
produced in other proceedings.
Until the new
plan " L " was made it was
difficult to follow the
reasoning, but with that plan it
is easy to follow the inspection
report and the judgment in the
Asantehene's Court "B." They
appear to us to be clear and
reasonable and founded upon good
sense .. Nothing in the
proceedings of the- Asantehene's
Court " A " or of the Court of
the Chief Commissioner has shown
the judgment of the original
trial Court to be wrong. On the
contrary, now that plan" L " is
available, the more the plans
and the evidence are examined
the dearer does it become that
the decision of the trial Court
was correct.