APALOO C.J.: There used to live in a town called Bomaa in Brong Ahafo a man called Nana Kwasi Ansu. He was the chief of that town and the evidence suggests that he was a man of means. He died in or about 1969 possessed of a cocoa farm situate on Bomaa stool land at a place variously called Biaso or Gambia. He died intestate and by well-known canons of customary law, that farm became family property. As is customary, the family appointed one Kwaku Bio as his customary successor. In that capacity he stood possessed of the farm. He is the appellant before us.
In February 1978 one Kwaku Yeboah (hereinafter called the plaintiff) issued out a writ in the High Court, Sunyani and invited the court to declare that a transaction took place between him and the late Ansu in respect of the cocoa farm succeeded to by the appellant (hereinafter called the defendant) and that that transaction constituted a customary pledge of the farm. He sought an order to recover the farm on payment of the pledge m…