LYDIA KWAO vs PASCAL MUAKO TCHEMO
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE A. K. YEBOAH
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Corporate Law
- Evidence Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This case involves a petition filed by Lydia Kwao for the nullity of her marriage to Pascal Nuako Tchemo. The court found that the marriage was indeed null and void as Pascal was already married to another woman at the time of their Ordinance marriage. The court declared the properties acquired during their void marriage as joint properties and confirmed Pascal as a director and shareholder of Pasco M & Sons Ltd. Several prior cases and statutes were referenced, and legal principles were established regarding the supersession of customary marriages by Ordinance marriages, void marriages, joint properties, and corporate participation.
This is the final judgment in the petition filed by Lydia Kwao on 29th December 2011. In her amended petition filed on 15th July 2013, she prayed for a declaration that the marriage between her and Pascal Nuako Tchemo, the Respondent to the Petition is null and void, financial provision and cost. In his amended answer to the Petition filed on 15th December 2014, the Respondent also cross-petitioned for a declaration that themarriage is null and void, recovery of specified sums of money from the Petitioner and a number of properties acquired during the marriage.
It is instructive to note from the onset that in their unamended petition and answer, both the Petitioner and the Respondent had prayed for dissolution of the marriage between them.
On the evidence, the Petitioner is a Ghanaian and the Respondent is a Cameroonian-born Canadian citizen.
Whilst doing business in Ghana, the Respondent met the Petitioner in Accra.
The Respondent was an importer and wholesaler engaged in the business of used clothing and the Petitioner was a retailer of used clothing.
Their meeting developed into a love relationship.
They initially celebrated Akan Customary Marriage at Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region and on 30th August 2003 upgraded it to an Ordinance Marriage.
The date of their first meeting was 2003. In proof of the customary law marriage the Respondent tendered Exhibits 25, 25A, 25B and 26. These are photographs of the marriage ceremony at Nkoranza.
To prove the subsequent Ordinance Marriage, the Petitioner tendered Exhibit ‘A’ dated 30th August 2003. On the basis of these exhibits implying a marriage, both parties initially pleaded a valid marriage and prayed for its dissolution by the Court.
In the course of the proceedings they turned tail to pray for a declaration that the marriage captured in these Exhibits is null and void.
However, for her part, when the Petitioner entered the witness box to testify, she led evidence not to support her proposition that the marriage is null and void, but rather in support of her prayer in the unamended petition that the marriage be dissolved.
Is the marriage between the parties null and void? Clearly, the moment the Ordinance Marriage between the parties came into force or operation on 30th August 2003, the customary marriage ceased to exist in law.
Given the incidents of both marriages particularly as regards polygamy and monogamy, both cannot conceptually and legally exist at the same time.
Accordingly, it is m