GEORGE HAGAN AND OTHERS

JUDGMENT OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL, DELIVERED THE 7TH JULY, 1939 ,

Privy Council Appeals Nos. 82 & 137 of 1936

These are two appeals, consolidated by order of the Board, against two judgments of the West African Court of Appeal, dated respectively the 19th and the 21st December, 1935, in two suits relating to the estate of the late Thomas Hagan, a native, who died at Winneba in the Central Pro­vince of the Gold Coast Colony on the 9th July, 1931.

The appellants are the brothers and sister of the de­ceased, and they were granted letters of administration of his personal estate by the Divisional Court of the said Province on the 22nd February, 1932. The respondents Effuah Adum and her children claim to be interested in the estate, both real and personal, as the domestic" slave-wife" and children of the deceased. The respondent Araba Tanuah claims to be interested in the estate as the head of the family of the de­ceased. It is common ground that the succession to the estate falls to be determined according to the native customary law.

The first suit, which may be referred to as suit A, was initiated by the issue of a summons in the Native Tribunal of Winneba on the 21st November, 1933, by the respondent Adum, on behalf of herself and her children, calling on the present appellants to declare the value of the estate of the deceased, and to show cause why her share, and that of her children, in the estate should not be designated.

On the 28th November, 19331 the appellants applied to the Court of the Provincial Commissioner of the' Central Province for the transfer of the above suit to the Divisional Court on. the ground that the Native Tribunal had no juris­diction to try it, and the' Native Tribunal thereupon sus­pended the hearing of the suit. On the 2nd February, 1934, the Court of the Provincial Commissioner dismissed the application, finding as a fact that the deceased had lived and died at Winneba, and holding that the Native Tribunal had jurisdiction. The appellants appealed therefrom to the Divi­sional Court of the Province, but they withdrew the appeal by leave of the Court on the 27th October, 1934, with a view to reaching an amicable settlement.

On the 21st December, 1934, hearing notices in suit A were issued, and on the 3rd January, 1935, the Tribunal granted an ex parte motion by the respondent Araba, as head of the family of the deceased, to be joined as co-plaintiff in the suit.

On the 8th January, 1935,