KOFI ANANE STEPHEN vs. MOHAMMED OPOKU GYAMFI

The plaintiff, a retired teacher and father of the defendant, sued for declaration of title, trespass and injunction in respect of Plot No. RP/22/A/19 at Tema. He contended that he acquired the land from Tema Development Corporation and had been developing it, but the defendant, his biological son, forcibly entered the land, claimed ownership and introduced prospective tenants. The defendant admitted that the land belonged to the plaintiff but asserted that the plaintiff had gifted part of it to him after money he had sent from the United Kingdom in 2004 for the purchase of two other plots was lost. Acting on that alleged gift and with the plaintiff’s consent, he said he obtained a building permit in the plaintiff’s name and constructed an uncompleted storey building at his own expense. The central dispute was therefore not title to the land itself, but whether there had been a valid gift of part of the land and what rights flowed from the defendant’s construction of the building on the plaintiff’s land.

When a father and his son stand toe to toe in a legal contest, there must be something wrong somewhere. Such is the situation before me which I am unfortunately tasked to referee. The parties are litigating over a land which the Defendant alleges his father, the Plaintiff herein, gifted to him to develop for which he has since put up an uncompleted storey building. The Plaintiff denied ever making any such gift to the Defendant. It is this misunderstanding which has called me to duty this morning to pour oil on troubled waters. The Plaintiff commenced the action in this court on 12th October 2016. The reliefs contained in the endorsement on his writ of summons are: a. A declaration of title to the plot No. RP/22/A/19. b. Damages for trespass. c. Perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant, his workmen, privies and successors in title from interfering with the Plaintiff’s quiet enjoyment of his plot of land. d. Costs including the professional fees of the Plaintiff’s lawye...