JUDGMENT
OLLENNU J.
The appellant sued in the Manya Krobo Native Court “A”, claiming damages for trespass to, and injunction in respect of, a piece of land measuring one rope and situate at Akatawia in the Manya Krobo State. The respondent resisted the claim, contending that their entry upon the land was in exercise of rights vested in them as owners of the land.
Trespass is a wrong against possession, and therefore the main fact which a plaintiff in an action for trespass must prove in order to succeed is possession. But where the defendant to an action in trespass pleads ownership, he puts the plaintiff’s title in issue; in such a case the plaintiff cannot succeed on his claim, unless he is able to prove his title to the land, or unless he proves that as between him and the defendant a better right to immediate possession is vested in him (the plaintiff) —see the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Nkyi XI v. Kumah ([1959] G.L.R. 281). Thus the defence set up by the defendants put the p…