KENNETH OFOSU-BARKO v. GERTRUDE GYAMFUA OFOSU-BARKO
2021
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- KWOFIE J. A. (PRESIDING)
- BAFFOUR J.A.
- BAAH J.A
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Civil Procedure
2021
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
On appeal from the High Court’s divorce property orders, the Ghana Court of Appeal, per Eric K. Baffour JA with Henry Kwofie JA (Presiding) and Eric Baah JA, reviewed distribution of marital assets between spouses married since 1976 and separated in 2009. The trial judge declared the parties joint owners of H/No 41A, First Avenue, Illovo, Sandton, Johannesburg, ordered equal sharing of rents, and equal division of funds in their NED Bank and UNFCU accounts as of July 2009, while allocating Trugem Consultancy to Respondent and Eagle Institute to Petitioner, and costs of GHS 5,000. Addressing challenges to rent sharing and alleged retroactivity, the Court held that retroactivity limits apply to legislation, not judgments, and limited rent accounting to post‑2008 (commencing 2009), with deductions for reasonable repair, maintenance, agency, and vacancy costs. It affirmed equal sharing of joint account funds and upheld costs. The appeal largely failed.
Baffour J.A:
INTRODUCTION
This appeal before the court seems to revolve around a narrow compass regarding the correctness or otherwise of the order for the equal sharing of rent accruing from the property of the parties in Johannesburg, South Africa as well as equal distribution of monies in two accounts that were jointly owned by the parties. Time and again, the jurisprudence of equality is equity principle and how best it has been applied to the equities of the parties who were once marital couple comes up for consideration before the appellate courts. And the matter before us is no exception. As to whether the exercise of the discretion of the trial court in the application of equal distribution is so perverse to warrant our intervention is as at the centre of the appeal. The parties would be referred to throughout the judgment by the designations that they bore at the court below.
BACKGROUND
Having been married under custom in March, 1976, the parties converted their marriage into marriage under the Marriage Ordinance on the 6th of August, 1977 at Aburi. In a roller coaster relationship that saw the couple travel around the world from Ghana to Canada, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda, the marriage enjoyed its ups and endured its downs. Having lived separately since 2009, the Petitioner commenced divorce proceedings against the Respondent in 2012 for dissolution of their marriage and for distribution of marital properties. The Respondent did not oppose the dissolution of the marriage and on the 27th of March, 2014, just with the evidence of the Petitioner, the trial court found the marriage to have broken down beyond reconciliation and accordingly dissolved the marriage. As the propriety and the manner of the dissolution of the marriage just after the evidence of the Petitioner and even in the absence of the Respondent is not the subject of the appeal before the court, we would restrain ourselves from commenting on same as to whether that was the proper procedure and receipt of evidence in making a determination for the dissolution of a marriage.
Be that as it may from the petition and answer to the petition, the parties throughout their marriage life possessed either collectively or individually the following properties and accounts:
1. A walled two plots situate at Mallam which was purchased in 1986 during the subsistence of the marriage.
2. H/No 15, Ginger Close SHC Estates, Adenta, being a single-storey four be