Weija land disputeCourt Orders Weija Stool to abide by Supreme Court ruling
An Accra High Court (Land Division) prevented the Weija Stool from litigating with F.K.A. Company Limited, a Real Estate Company.and its Manager, Frederick Kofi Asare over a piece of land situated at Weija, a suburb of Accra.
In its ruling, dated March 11, 2010, the court, presided over by Justice Kwasi Dapaa noted that the piece of land measuring about 2656.39 acres, which had been a subject of litigation in a previous case, has already been dealt with by the Supreme Court, in favour of the Real Estate Company.
The court, therefore, indicated that Nii Boafo Danyima-Nse I, the Dzasetse and acting Mantse of Weija and the entire Weija Stool, who sued the Real Estate Company. and its Manager over ownership, if the piece of land should abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court and end the prosecution of the suit filed against F.K.A. Company Limited, a real estate company and its Manager, Frederick Kofi Asare.
According to the court, the same issue that had been dealt with through the High Court up to the Supreme Court, and in addition a judicial review of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the previous case from 2001 to 2009, were the same issues that the Weija Stool is seeking against the defendants in the present suit.
The court further asserted that since the “highest Court of the land, the Supreme Court, has already determined the issue to its finality, this court has not the competence or the power under law to re-open same and the parties are bound by that.” A cost of GH¢2,000.00 was awarded against the Weija Stool in favour of the two defendants.
The Weija Stool had sued the defendants in October 12, 2009, seeking a court declaration that no oral grant under the customary law was made by the Weija Stool to any of the two defendants for the piece of land in dispute.
Plaintiff further noted that even if any oral grant was made to the defendants in 1980, it was invalid since the grant was not recorded in accordance with Section 4 of the conveyance Act 1973 (NRCD 175).
The Weija Stool also sought that an instrument dated May 16, 1998, said to have been issued by Nii Anto Nyame II, Weija Mantse, as Lessor and F.K.A. Company Limited as Lessee, as supporting the oral grant was fraudulent and invalid. In addition, the Stool sought a cancellation of the instrument including a perpetual injunction against the defendants and their agents.
In a statement of claim, the plaintiff said that the Weija Stool, which owned all the lands in Weija had not made any oral grant of the piece of land to the defendants, and even if there was any such grant it was invalid.
In their defense, the defendant asserted that the 1st defendant was indeed a lessee of the land in issue from the Weija Stool as per the instrument signed by the Weija Mantse, Nii Anto Nyame II.
According to the defendants, they acquired the land, subject matter of both the previous proceedings and present action from the Weija Stool by a customary grant in 1998, but one Effah Sarkodie, the defendant in the previous suit challenged their title to the land.
However, the issue was decided in favour of the Real Estate Developer, as defendants indicated that the present plaintiff being Dzasetse and the acting Mantse of the Weija Stool was a privy to the previous proceedings and, therefore, bound by the outcome thereof and prevented from re-litigating the issue as he seeks to do by the present action.
On his part, the Plaintiff argued that the defendants could only prevent them from pursuing the present action only when they were privy or parties to the previous suit adding that the present 1st and 2nd defendants being a corporate body and an individual person respectively, could not be said to be a party to the previous proceedings which the 1st defendant corporate body was the sole plaintiff.