JUDGMENT
CHARLES ZWENNES, JA.:
THE BACKGROUND:
The Plaintiff/Respondent to this appeal brought an action in the High Court against the Defendant/Appellant seeking a declaration of title to and recovery of possession of a piece of immovable property, amongst other reliefs. In essence, he premised his claim on the complaint that the Defendant did not
buy the property from its rightful owner. According to him, the property belonged to his family and not to the person the Defendant purported to have bought it from. He brought the claim in the capacity as the true and rightful customary custodian holding it for and on behalf of the family. He demonstrated the family’s ownership by pleading the historical narrative of matrilineal succession to the property going down the generational line of his maternal family’s lineage in accordance with applicable customary law.
Upon being sued, the Defendant/Appellant disputed the claim. He argued principally that he had acquired the property from its rightf…