COLE v. COLE
1966
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- KORANTENG-ADDOW J.
Areas of Law
- Equity and Trusts
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Contract Law
- Civil Procedure
1966
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
John Cole, a retired civil servant and successful timber trader, owned a Takoradi house (No. 27A/5). During a debilitating stroke, he instructed his nephew, Samuel Joseph Cole, to manage his affairs and prepared a deed of gift (exhibit 5) so Samuel could, if John died, bury him and support his wife and children from the property’s rents, with an understanding to return the house if John survived. Samuel began collecting rents and treated the house as his own, refusing to account when John recovered. The court rejected Samuel’s claims of consideration and health, discredited forged and irrelevant documents, and found the transfer was for a special purpose that failed. Applying Halsbury’s principle, it imposed a resulting trust, declared John’s title, granted an injunction, ordered an accounting and payment of net rents, and awarded costs.
The plaintiff in this action is the uncle of the defendant and hails from Sierra Leone. According to his evidence the plaintiff came to Ghana (then the Gold Coast) many years ago, worked in the Railways Department of the civil service and is now a pensioner. He brought the defendant to Ghana when he was about fourteen years of age and found employment for him in the same department in which he was himself employed. The defendant did well for himself, was sent to the United Kingdom on a government scholarship and on his return was given a high post in the department. He is now also retired and a pensioner. He retired in April 1960 drawing an annual salary of £G1,090.
When the plaintiff retired from the civil service he engaged himself in the then flourishing timber trade and from all accounts he succeeded in that trade. In answers to questions in cross-examination the defendant said that the plaintiff had as many as seven houses and that he had never been a poor man.
The dispute in this case centres around only one of the houses owned by the plaintiff—house No. 27A/5 situate at Ahanta Road, Takoradi. The brief history of the house is that the plaintiff bought the leasehold interest of one Simon Kwaku Addoweh in the plot together with an uncompleted building thereon for the sum of £G900 in 1958 as evidenced by a deed of assignment, exhibit 7, herein. After purchasing the interests of the original lessee, the plaintiff subsequently completed the unfinished building. The time at which the house was completed is not specifically stated in evidence but it must be some time after 1958, the date of the assignment.
The plaintiff’s case is that he was stricken with a stroke in 1960 and was so incapacitated that he could no more carry on his timber trade. Far from abating the illness became worse. Fearing that his end was near he summoned the defendant some time in the early months of 1961 and charged him with certain responsibilities. He asked him in the event of his death to give him a decent burial and look after his wife and children. During that period the defendant was, according to the plaintiff, at the plaintiff’s request managing all his affairs for him. To enable the defendant to execute the responsibilities entrusted to him the plaintiff said, "I told him that because of the seriousness of my illness he should prepare papers in respect of my house (house No. 27A/5, Ahanta Road, Takoradi) by which I would