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November 7, 1966
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
JUDGMENT OF ARCHER J.
The petitioner seeks dissolution of the marriage between herself and the respondent on the ground of the respondent’s adultery with one Adjowa Kwaboa. The respondent, in his reply and also at the trial, prayed that the marriage should be dissolved and a decree granted in his favour on the ground that the petitioner’s conduct was conducive to the said adultery which the respondent has admitted.
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The parties were married on 29 December 1956 and lived in the matrimonial home at Yamoransa, near Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana. At the time of the marriage the petitioner was an assistant mass education officer, stationed at Kumasi. Shortly after the marriage she resigned her job at the request of the respondent and lived with the respondent at Yamoransa. The respondent owned the matrimonial home at Yamoransa and kept a store. The petitioner also had a passbook with Messrs. S.C.O.A. and with the passbook acquired good business and earned profit, it was suggested that the respondent's store should be converted into a commission store as a prelude to further expansion of the business. This was done after the petitioner had provided the necessary security. Later the petitioner was employed as a matron at the then Teachers Training College at Cape Coast and remained for some time unemployed when the Training College was temporarily closed down. Subsequently, she regained her employment as matron in the same institution now converted into the University College of Cape Coast. She is still employed there.
The respondent, early in 1964 found that his business as a mineral manufacturer had collapsed owing to scarcity of essential chemicals and the impossibility of obtaining import licences to purchase these chemicals from abroad. While at Yamoransa he had a farm at Anyan-Denkyira, his home town, and he therefore decided to transfer his abode from Yamoransa to Anyan-Denkyira and to concentrate on his farming. He also took up a job as a teacher with the Methodist School at Anyan-Denkyira. On the last of three visits which she paid the respondent at Anyan-Denkyira, the petitioner discovered that the respondent had become a father of a son born by one Adwoa Kwaboa, the co-respondent. The respondent admitted that he was the father. However, he maintained during the trial that the petitioner's conduct towards him was conducive to the commission of the said adultery. The conduct complained of consisted of the petitioner's refusal to
AI Generated Summary
ARCHER J considered a matrimonial petition by a wife employed as a matron at the University College of Cape Coast seeking dissolution of her marriage based on the husband’s adultery with a housekeeper, Adjowa Kwaboa, in Anyan‑Denkyira. The couple married in 1956 and initially lived at Yamoransa. At the husband’s request, the wife had earlier resigned her job and helped grow the respondent’s commerce, including converting his store into a commission store using her S.C.O.A. passbook. After the husband’s mineral manufacturing business collapsed, he relocated to Anyan‑Denkyira to farm and teach at the Methodist School, engaging a housekeeper who later bore his son. He admitted paternity but argued that the wife’s failure to relocate, long absences, and lack of care made his adultery inevitable. The court found daily cohabitation impracticable without the wife’s unreasonable resignation, noted the husband never visited and had refused intercourse, and concluded the adultery stemmed from his own choices. A decree nisi was granted with costs.