Assampong V. Chief Kweku Amuaku & Ors (1933)
LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal
Trespass to land—The unrecorded decision of a body of persons who were neither members of a Court of Justice nor Arbitrators may constitute a res judicata in such a case.
Facts
In an act on for trespass to land, the Court below held that the unrecordec decision of a body of persons appointed some 35 years ago by two Paramount Chiefs to adjudicate upon a dispute about the ownership of the land in questiou did not create an estoppel by way of res judicata.
Held
On appeal, that such a decision, though never recorded in writing and though the body of persons so appointed could not be regarded as either a Court of Law or as arbitrators, could and did create an estoppel by way of ” res judicata on proof that it was pronounced as alleged and that it affected the predecessors in title of the Plaintiff and the fourth defendant. In the opinion of the West African Court of Appeal the persons who give that decision were persons exercising judicial functions by native custom, and duly authorised to –adjudicate upon the dispute referred to them for decision.
