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Summary Judgments in Land Litigation; A ‘Quickie’ Path to Obtain Judgments? To Move or Not To Move, The Quagmire of the Practitioner?

Source: Frederick Gurah Sampson Esq.

Summary Judgments in Land Litigation; A ‘Quickie’ Path to Obtain Judgments? To Move or Not To Move, The Quagmire of the Practitioner?
MarryRight Ghana

Introduction

The overriding interest of a Plaintiff in commencing a civil action is to obtain a favourable judgment in a quick and expeditious manner whether after full trial or in default prior to full trial. There are several means of securing judgments prior to the end of the trial. A judgment could be obtained by default of appearance, of defence or by summary judgment, which is the focus of this paper, but relative to land litigation. In a previous paper by the author, he discusses the procedural nuances on how to obtain judgments when the case involves declaratory reliefs. 

In land cases, the typical reliefs a Plaintiff may be seeking would include without limitation, a declaration of title to land lying situate and being at (detailed description provided), an order for perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from doing certain acts, an order for the recovery of possession etc. The Plaintiff therefore prays the Court to make an Order among others that he or she is the owner of a particular piece or parcel of land. The Rules of Court regarding Summary Judgment afford an opportunity to a plaintiff in an action where a defendant has been served with a Writ of Summons and has filed an appearance to apply for Summary judgment on the belief that the defendant has no defence to the claim or a part thereof. There is however a seeming uncertainty or debate among practitioners whether in land matters, a Plaintiff can obtain judgment summarily or not, seeing that the reliefs sought in such cases are usually declaratory in nature. It seems to the author that practitioners are not in agreement, there is no clear judicial authority on this, hence a vacuum created. The burden of the author in this article is to review the law on Summary Judgment, discuss the two opposing views of whether same can be granted in land matters or not, attempt to fill the vacuum and draw a conclusion that a party may not be wrong if he or she applies for Summary judgment in a land matter albeit the reliefs are declaratory in nature, and the courts must grant same once it is clear that the defendant has no defence and the evidence before the court shows that the Applicant is so entitled.

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