TAYLOR J.S.C.: This case involves very simple issues which are of recurring significance in our courts. And although it is a really straightforward case, it raises the usual problems and poses some questions which are of fundamental importance in the customary land law system of Ghana. To appreciate the nature of the problems and attempt to answer the questions posed, it is necessary to appraise the facts grounding the rival claims of the parties and in the process to identify the nature of the controversy which we have been called upon to resolve as a final appellate court of last resort.
The appellant, Mr. Akyea-Djamson, who was the plaintiff in the circuit court, is not a native of Fintey, a village in the Duffor paramountcy. He however bought a piece of land, the subject matter of the dispute, from the Asilevi family which hails from Fintey. The Asilevi family led evidence that their “ancestors had settled on the land from time immemorial.” Apart from the land on which they thus se…