Obed Yao Bansah V. Alfred Yao Kuma Kwad Jo Peroscar Kpe (1944)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Claim to land—Burden of proof.

Facts

Plaintiff sued Defendant in Native Tribunal, unsuccessfully, for a piece of land. He appealed to the Provincial Commissioner’s Court, which reversed the Tribunal’s judgment without recording what parties put forward ; but it was clear from its decision that that Court considered whether Defendant had proved his title. Defendant then appealed to the West African Court of Appeal. As an afterthought Plaintiff’s Counsel argued that some witnesses gave evidence without being sworn before the Native Tribunal and therefore the case should be remitted for retrial.

Held

that the absence of a note that witnesses had been sworn before the Native Tribunal was no proof that they had not been sworn, and seeing that nothing was said about it in the intermediate appeal, no weight could be given to the objection.
Held also that the burden of proof in the suit claiming the land lay on the Plaintiff, who had failed to discharge it before the Native Tribunal.

 The judgment of the Tribunal is restored and the Appellant is awarded costs in the Provincial Commissioner’s Court to bg taxed, and in this Court assessed at £29 14s. 6d.