Nil Azuma III V. Peter Quarshie Fiscian & Ors (1953)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West Africa Court of Appeal

Native Law and Custom—The “ Brazilians ”—Their Chief and the sections—Land given them—Sectional possession.

Facts

It was common ground that about 1836 a shipload of Africans came from Brazil under a common leader and several group-heads and were given land to dwell in and bush-land to cultivate.

The appellant, who was the co-defendant in the suits, sold plots to the other defendants. The respondents, as descendants of a group-head, claimed that that leader apportioned the land to the groups, and that their ancestors had been in possession of their own area; the appellant alleged in his defence that the land remained the land of the ” Brazilian ” community without apportionment and he as their Chief could sell or grant portions:
thus the points were (1) whether there had been any such apportionment, and (2) whether the respondents’ ancestors had been in possession of the plots in
question.

The respondents were the plaintiffs in the Native Court, where they lost, but they won in the Land Court on appeal; the co-defendant in the suits appealed. (Previous cases bearing on the ” Brazilians’ ” land are listed below; they are referred to in the judgment on appeal infra.)

Held

(1) Previous cases show that there had been apportionment of areas to the group heads of the “Brazilians” and that their possession had been recognised by the Courts as enabling them to maintain and defend suits even against the present appellant or the previous Chief.

(2) There was abundant evidence that the respondents’ predecessors had been in possession of the land in dispute and that fact was supported by plans put in as exhibits in a previous case, one of them being a plan put in by the previous
Chief.

Appeal dismissed.