VAN LARE AG CJ.: The facts in this appeal are not in dispute. Briefly stated they are as follows. The respondent inherited his uncle’s cocoa farm, adjoining which was virgin forest land, the subject-matter of this suit. The appellant was a caretaker employed by the respondent in respect of his said farm. It appears that during his caretakership the appellant, himself a subject of Nkawie Stool, approached the Stool (as owners of the disputed land) for a grant to him. The Stool accordingly made a grant to him, and sent an agent to demarcate the extent of such grant. In the result, seven acres of forest land adjoining the respondent’s farm, of which he was a caretaker, were granted to the appellant, and he cultivated them.
The respondent instituted this action against the appellant, claiming the said land. The matter for decision was purely a question of native customary law, that is to say, whether the Nkawie Stool could make a valid grant of forest land adjoining the farm of a subject t…