AKYEM V. ADU AND OTHERS; ADU AND OTHERS V. BRANTUO AND ANOTHER (CONSOLIDATED)

ANIN J. A.: This is an appeal in a consolidated land suit by the Buabin stool and its tenant, S. K. Adu (hereinafter referred to collectively as the appellants) from a judgment of the Cape Coast High Court dated 19 December 1972 dismissing their claim for title to a parcel of land, and finding in favour of the Denkyira Fosu stool and its tenant, Kwame Brantuo (hereinafter referred to simply as the respondents) in respect of their rival claim of title to the same land and other ancillary reliefs.

From the copious pleadings and interlocutory proceedings running to some 150 pages of the printed record, the principal issue which emerges is the simple question, which of the opposing stools, Buabin or Denkyira Fosu, owns the disputed area edged red in exhibit HC2 (the plan of the area ordered by the court). A secondary issue of immediate concern to the two tenants of the rival stools is the question of title to a smaller area of farm land also edged red in exhibit HC1, another plan ordered b…