S. G. Acquah & Ors V. P. T. Acquah & Anor (1941)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Trespass—Land held under native tenure—Suit subject to exclusive original jurisdiction of native tribunal—Family property and self-acquired individual property—Finding of native tribunal reversed by Appeal Court of Provincial Commissioner restored on this Appeal.

Facts

Claim for £50 damages for trespass on plaintiff’s cocoa plantation : First defendant admitted removing 240 The of cocoa on •ingirtiet►OW of second defendant who claimed that the plantation was family proper*: plaintiff was in possession at the time of the alleged, trespass.

The Native tribunal held that

Plaintiff had established that his father was the personal owner of the farm in dispute;

That the disputed farm was the one mentioned in the Will, and

Plaintiff was proved to be the rightful owner of that farm;

The assistance of domestics of the Acquah family did not prevent plaintiff’s father from being regarded as right owner and disposing of it by Will; and

That the defendants had knowingly trespassed on plaintiff’s right as devisee of the plantation. This was set aside on appeal in the Provincial Commissioner’s Court on the ground that

1. Plaintiff did not show his father to have been the personal owner of the farm in dispute.
2. That the disputed farm is not proved to be the farm mentioned in the Will.
3. Plaintiff was not proved to be the rightful owner of the disputed farm.

Held

The finding of fact in the Native Tribunal had not been shown to be wrong and that there was ample evidence on which that tribunal could come to the conclusion it did, and that it not having been clearly established that the Court was wrong in the conclusion it came to the Provincial Commissioner’s Court was not justified in reversing the decision.