COFIE AND OTHERS v. FORSON AND OTHERS

Brobbey J resolved a dispute over State Housing Corporation house No. C 208 at Dansoman, Accra, purchased in 1972 by Chief Superintendent of Police Ebenezer Atome Cofie. In 1973, nephew Joshua Yaw Atome wrote to the Corporation that his uncle bought the house for him and the uncle’s children, and later in 1976 Cofie executed a statutory declaration (Exhibit B) stating he provided the purchase money and that he held the property on trust for Joshua and his children, requesting the records reflect his name. The Corporation changed registration accordingly. Cofie died in 1988, leaving a will (Exhibit C) bequeathing the same house to his second wife, Florence Aba Andoh, and her children, creating a conflict with Exhibit B. Rejecting the executors’ arguments that Exhibit B was merely an intention or a discretionary trust, the court applied equitable doctrines on the three certainties, modes of constituting trusts, and secret trusts to hold Exhibit B created an express, completely constituted trust that prevails dehors the will. The executors were ordered to hold and vest the property in the customary successor of J.Y. Atome and the trust beneficiaries, with costs awarded to the plaintiffs.