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NT
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Parties: Plaintiff present.
Defendant absent.
Counsel: F. K. Yeboah for
plaintiff present. Lawyer for
defendant absent.
Plaintiff opens his case.
Plaintiff is sworn on Bible in
English. I am Dr. Kwesi Boadu. I
live at McCarthy Hill, Accra. I
am a Medical Doctor,
gynecologist. I know the
defendant in this case. I have a
piece of land at Kasoa. I
obtained this land from the
chiefs of Kasoa-Ofankor. I know
the land under litigation. The
land under litigation is about 4
plots. The 4 plots are mine.
Originally the land was a very
large piece of land I was
farming on. But the chiefs
approached those of us who were
farming in the area that the
Kasoa Township was spreading and
needed more space for
residential purposes. So they
divided the land we had for
farming into 3 portions and they
took 2 portions and gave us the
farmers one portion. By this
time it was a freehold. I
demarcated my property and set
some security over it. Somewhere
along the time some people
started trespassing. The chiefs
gave me an indenture covering
the land. The larger land was
10.74 acres. And that was what
was given me out of which the 4
plots of land are in litigation.
The indenture dated 31st
December 2003 is admitted into
evidence and marked as Exhibit
‘A’. Exhibit ‘A’ is registered.
I secured the land by putting
pillars at the relevant parts
and also got security to take
care of it. Later some people
started trespassing and
defendant was one of such
trespassers. Defendant entered
the land and started developing
the land at fast rate. I talked
to defendant to stop. I also
talked to the chiefs to talk to
him to stop the development but
he disregarded all this
completely. Finally I consulted
my lawyer who wrote a letter to
him. The first letter my lawyer
wrote to him I personally
delivered it to him. And after
about a month he wrote back in
response to that letter. The
letter my lawyer wrote dated 28th
January 2010 is marked Exhibit
‘B’. The response of defendant
to Exhibit ‘B’ is admitted and
marked as Exhibit ‘C’. my lawyer
wrote to invite him to come for
discussion. The letter is marked
as Exhibit ‘D’. defendant did
not respond to this letter.
Subsequently I instituted the
action claiming the reliefs
endorsed thereon.
End of evidence of plaintiff.
Plaintiff closed case.
By Court:
Judgment:-
On or about 25th
August 2011, plaintiff obtained
an interlocutory judgment upon
an application on notice. On
that application, it was
observed that although defendant
was served, he did not come to
court to say anything. However,
after obtaining the
interlocutory judgment, the
court directed plaintiff to
serve the defendant with entry
of interlocutory judgment
together with hearing notice to
afford the defendant the
opportunity of contesting the
claim of plaintiff if he was
minded to. Yet again, the
defendant disregarded the
process and refused to come to
court, the service of the
processes on him
notwithstanding. Under the
circumstance, the court was
constrained to proceed with the
case. Plaintiff has adduced
evidence to the effect that he
first started farming on the
land and when the township
spread to the area, he obtained
grant of about 10.74 acres of
the farm land. He took steps to
secure it by raising corner
pillars. He also tendered into
evidence Exhibit ‘A’, a
registered indenture evidencing
title having been transferred to
him by the original owners, Nai
Odupong Awushie Tetteh II, the
chief of Odupong Ofankor Anane
Royal Family. He took all steps
to stop defendant from further
developing the land but to no
avail. He was therefore
constrained to sue the defendant
who has once again ignored the
processes of the court
contemptuously. In the
circumstance; I enter final
judgment in favour of plaintiff.
Accordingly, he is declared the
owner of the land depicted in
the site plan attached to
Exhibit ‘A’. For damages for
trespass plaintiff is awarded
the sum of GH¢5,000. I order
recovery of possession of the
land in favour of plaintiff. I
further order that all
construction on the land be
demolished. Plaintiff is awarded
costs of GH¢2,000.00.
(SGD) ANTHONY OPPONG
JUSTICE
OF THE HIGH COURT.
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