ADUMUA-BOSSMAN J.
The appeal is against a judgment of the District Magistrate, Cape Coast (E. T. Aryee, Esq.), hereinafter referred to shortly as the magistrate, whereby, after rejecting the appellant’s plea that the claim was barred by the Limitation Act, 1623 (21 Ja. 1, c. 16), he upheld the respondent’s claim for,
“The sum of £G68 9s. 2d. being goods [sold] and net cash [advanced] as per notes of hand.”
The suit and the ensuing appeal raise the vexed and difficult question as to when a transaction between aborigines of the country may properly be held to be governed by native customary law and when it may properly be held not to be governed by customary law but rather exclusively by English law.
The general law is of course set out in section 87 (1) of the Courts Ordinance; but it is in the application of the provisions of that section that the difficulty often arises, as it has done in this case. The respondent claimed to have the suit placed on the “Undefended List,” and in his sup…