COFIE vs. SHAHIN AND OTHERS

The appellant/plaintiff, owner of land at Osu/Christianborg, Accra, leased the land to the 1st respondent under a lease dated 28 August 1972, registered as No. 2354/73. She later sought to set aside or modify the lease under section 18 of the Conveyancing Decree, 1973 (NRCD 175), alleging that the transaction was unconscionable; alternatively, she contended that on a true construction the lease was for ten years certain. The evidence accepted by the courts showed that what was leased was substantially vacant land with only a temporary structure, which the lessee was to remove and thereafter build upon. The lessee and subsequent assignees developed the property, and the appellant later accepted further advance rent in 1981 covering a period up to 2002. The central controversy was whether, in all the circumstances, the lease terms—particularly the rent and duration—were unconscionable. Portion relied on: “The plaintiff, by her amended writ of summons claims under the Conveyancing Decree 1973 NRCD 175… ‘An order to set aside or in the alternative to modify the lease agreement… on the ground of unconscionability…’”; and “It seems to me that the duration of the lease… is the main bone of contention between the parties.”