GIFTY ESINAM ADJEI VS DANIEL AKPOR ADJEI
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP MRS. MERLEY WOOD J.
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The High Court heard the divorce petition filed by the wife, Petitioner, who sought dissolution of the marriage on grounds of irretrievable breakdown due to the husband's unreasonable behavior, including insults and physical abuse. The Petitioner also sought a division of matrimonial property and financial provision. The Respondent denied the claims and asserted they were not married under customary law before their ordinance marriage. The court found in favor of the Petitioner, dissolving the marriage and awarding her 50% of the matrimonial property and GH¢5,000 as financial provision.
The wife Petitioner per her petition for a dissolution of marriage between herself and the Respondent prays per the following reliefs:
1. An order for the dissolution of the Ordinance marriage contracted between the parties on the grounds that same had broken down beyond reconciliation.
2. An order directed at Respondent to settle on the Petitioner one half of the parties matrimonial home located at Tebibiano, Teshie or to pay to the Petitioner one half of the monetary value of the same.
3. An order directed at the respondent to settle on the Petitioner one half share of all other properties acquired by the parties or by the Respondent during the subsistence of the marriage or pays one half of the monetary value of same to the petitioner.
4. An order that Respondent pays to the Petitioner a lump sum of GH¢25, 000. 00. 5. An order directed at the Respondent to refund to the Petitioner the sum of GH¢7, 000. 00 used by the Petitioner to settle a debt in favour of the Respondent’s to enable him to be released from custody.
6. Any other consequential relief (s) this Honourable Court deems just and appropriate.
7. Costs of this litigation including lawyer’s fees.
The husband Respondent on the other hand in his answer denies that they were married under Ewe customary law in Accra, and says that he got to know the Petitioner six months before they were married under the ordinance and therefore the petition should be dismissed for being unmeritorious and an abuse of the legal process.
The Petitioner’s evidence on oath is that they were customarily married for sixteen years at Somanya before the ordinance marriage on 24th July 2012. According to her the Respondent who insults and assaults her physically, accuses her of being a prostitute and being in an adulterous relationship which she denies and alleges that it is the Respondent who is in such a relationship.
She refers to an incident where the Respondent assaulted her in public when she was talking to the husband of a lady pastor because he claimed she was having an affair with the said man.
She further says he later subjected her to more beatings because she refused to give him the key to the bedroom upon his demand of it and that the Respondent subsequently threw her out of their bedroom.
Attempts at settlement by her uncle failed because the Respondent was intransigent she says.
There are no children of the said marriage.
She called two witnesses in support of her case.
Her first witness PW