AUGUSTINE YAW MANU v. MADAM ELIZABETH AMA NSIAH

ASARE KORANG, JA -

The Plaintiff\Respondent (hereafter designated as the Plaintiff) as customary successor

and head of family of the matrilineal family of the late Stephen Yaw Nimo sued the

Defendant/Appellant (hereafter called the Defendant), the widow of the late Stephen Yaw

Nimo (Yaw Nimo for short hereafter) for inter alia a Declaration that House No. ZE.

172, Zongo Extension, Kumasi is the property of the immediate matrilineal family of

Yaw Nimo and that the purported gift inter vivos of the said house by Yaw Nimo to the

defendant was null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

The case of the plaintiff was that the late Yaw Nimo inherited the property in dispute

upon the death of the late Kwadwo Nsiah and that Yaw Nimo as customary successor

held the house in trust for the immediate matrilineal family of the late Opanin Kwadwo

Nsiah to which he (plaintiff) belonged.

The plaintiff stated that the late Yaw Nimo had no testomentary capacity to dispose of the

house in dispute without the consent and concurrence of members of his family and the

purported gift inter vivos and subsequently the Will of the disputed house made in

favour of the defendant was null and void and of no effect.

The story of the defendant was that the late KWADWO Nsiah during his lifetime gifted

the house in dispute to her and she paid the required custom to seal same in the

presence of witnesses.

It is not disputed that the property in contention was first acquired by the late Kwadwo

Nsiah but the defendant resisted the plaintiff’s claim on three main grounds; namely:

(a) the plaintiff was at no time appointed the customary successor

of the late Yaw Nimo;

(b) the plaintiff is neither the head of family nor a member of the family of the

late Yaw Nimo;

(c) the late Yaw Nimo was the last surviving member of the family

and therefore the plaintiff was not and could not be a member

of the family of Yaw Nimo.

It was also narrated by the Defendant that when late Kwadwo Nsiah

realised during his lifetime that his family was about to become extinct, he bought two

slaves, male and female, from Northern Ghana, for the purpose of reviving and

perpetuating his lineage. The slaves, Kwesi Donkor (male) and Asempa Asa (female)

were then adopted or assimilated into Kwadwo Nsiah’s family and they gave birth to the

defendant and at least one other female.

To solidify and strengthen his design of ensuring that his blood line remained intact,

Kwadwo Nsiah gave the defe