2013
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The respondents sought joint administration and distribution of their great-grandmother Fatima Suka's estate, challenging a decision by the Islamic Judicial Committee that excluded female descendants. The High Court and Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' decisions, rejecting the IJCs verdict as unconstitutional and discriminatory, declaring that the estate must be distributed per the Intestate Succession Law, 1985. The Supreme Court found insufficient evidence to confirm a gift inter vivos of the Tudu house.
BENIN, JSC.
By an amended writ of summons filed at the High Court, Accra, the plaintiffs/respondents/respondents, hereinafter called the respondents, sought the under listed reliefs against the defendant/appellant/appellant, hereinafter called the appellant:
A declaration that both plaintiffs and defendant are great grand children of Fatima Suka (deceased).
An order for the parties to jointly take letters of administration to administer the estate of Fatima Suka.
An order for the distribution of the estate of the late Fatima Suka among legitimate beneficiaries.
An order to set aside the judgment of the Islamic Judicial Committee.
The respondents claimed that Fatima Suka who died in 1954 was the great grandmother of both parties in this case. At the hearing the family tree was traced and from the record it was clearly so established, as there was no contrary evidence. Whilst the respondents are the grandchildren of Ramatu Osumanu Fulani, the only female child of Fatima Suka, the appellant is the grandson of Mallam Ibrahim Osumanu Fulani, the only male child of Fatima Suka. Hence all the parties are the direct descendants of Fatima Suka. The estate of the late Fatima Suka which the parties are fighting over comprises three houses situate at various parts of Accra, according to the respondents’ case as stated in paragraph 4 of the statement of claim, precisely at Cow Lane, Tudu and New Town. The appellant partially admitted this specific averment, by paragraph 3 of his statement of defence. The respondents contended that the late Fatima Suka gifted the Tudu house to her daughter Ramatu in her lifetime. They further posited that in respect of the Cow Lane house the appellant and his family have been in occupation all these years. In respect of the New Town house the rooms were shared out by Fatima among her four grandchildren. The respondents have been in uninterrupted possession of the Tudu house until 2008 when the appellant laid adverse claim to all the three houses claiming sole ownership thereof. The basis of appellant’s adverse claim was that in Islamic law inheritance to deceased intestate estate is through the male line and thus females do not inherit property. This position was affirmed by the Islamic Judicial Committee (IJC) when the matter of the distribution of the estate went before the said Committee. The record at page 131 shows that only the house at Cow Lane was the subject before the IJC whose decision was handed down on 27th March 2008