FORDWOUR AND OTHERS V. NIMO AND OTHERS

DJABANOR J.: This is a case in which the five plaintiffs the children of late Joseph Nyame, also known as Abesua Nyame, are claiming from the defendants (the first defendant claiming to be the successor of the said Abesua Nyame), several properties including cocoa farms and houses, and damages for trespass. Their ground for so claiming are that their late father died possessed of these properties in his own right, i.e. they were self-acquired, and he had no relatives, being, as they pleaded, a servant or slave whose family was made up of himself, his wives and children only. Another basis of their claim was that at an arbitration before Mr. Duncan Williams, district commissioner for the district in which they lived, the defendants agreed to surrender the whole of these properties to the plaintiffs. Needless to say this action was brought because the defendants had not given up the properties to the plaintiffs.

The defendants, however, contended that the late Abesua Nyame was in the def…