Per her petition the wife petitioner prays that: a. the marriage between herself and the Respondent be dissolved, b. lump sum payment of GHC10, 000. 00, c. costs including legal cost d. any further orders of the court Even though the Respondent entered appearance per his counsel, they failed to file an answer.
Both Counsel and the Respondent never appeared in court despite the hearing notices and other processes served on them.
The court therefore proceeded to hear the case in their absence after having deemed that they were not interested in prosecuting the matter.
The evidence of the Petitioner is that after the marriage, they lived with the Respondent’s mother despite her protestations.
She says her mother-in-law found fault with everything that she did including her housewifery and culinary skills and this made life very unbearable for her.
One day she says that after an argument between the two of them, not only did her mother-in-law rain insults on her but the Respondent did too at a meeting to resolve the issues.
She cites an instance when during a trip together with the Respondent and two of his relatives, the Respondent drove off and left her in the middle of nowhere and he subsequently ignored a letter from her parish priest after her complaints to him (priest). She says the Respondent was coming home late, was drinking, smoking, receiving text messages from ladies and always hurling insults at her.
Furthermore, she alleges that he kept accusing her of being incapable of bearing children, until tests later performed on both of them indicated that he had a low sperm count and was incapable of fathering children and therefore he advised her to leave the marriage.
She tendered the marriage certificate and says she is abandoning her other reliefs save for the dissolution of the marriage.
Has this marriage broken down beyond reconciliation? The sole ground for the breakdown of a marriage is that it has broken down beyond reconciliation.
Section 2(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1971 (Act 367) stipulates the grounds which must be shown in proof of the breakdown of the marriage.
These include the fact that the respondent has behaved in a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent 2(1)(b); that the parties to the marriage have after diligent effort been unable to reconcile their differences, 2(1)(f). It is to be borne in mind that the Respondent did not file any answer disputing the Petitioner’s allegati
