MADAM ADZO TORBIZO VS LOUIS ANANI & ORS
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE S. H. OCRAN
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves the dispute over the ownership and sale of house number B314/18, Bubiashie, Accra. The Plaintiff claimed joint ownership with her husband, the 1st Defendant, who is a citizen of Togo. The 1st Defendant relocated to Togo and authorized the sale of the house. The court held that the house was the 1st Defendant's self-acquired property, not a joint matrimonial home, and that the 1st Defendant had the right to sell it. The Plaintiff and her children were ordered to vacate the premises.
BY COURT: By the Plaintiff's amended Writ of Summons filed on 19th May 2014, the following reliefs were claimed:
a) A declaration that house Number B314/18, Bubiashie is jointly owned by the Plaintiff and the 1st Defendant.
b) An Order restraining the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants or their agents from disposing of the property known as house number B314/18 Bubiashie, Accra.
c) An Order restraining the 4th Defendant from purchasing the property known as House Number B314/18, Bubiashie Accra, from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants or their agents or privies.
In the statement of claim that accompanied the writ, the Plaintiff pleaded that she is the wife of the 1st Defendant and that they had been married for about 50 years under Ghana Customary Law and had eight (8) children. That she, the Plaintiff, assisted the 1st Defendant to complete House Number B314/15 Bubiashie, and had lived in the said house as the matrimonial home.
The Plaintiff's pleading stated further that the 1st Defendant, being a citizen of Togo, has since 2011 left Ghana to settle in his country, the Republic of Togo, and authorized the 2nd and 3rd Defendants to sell off the house in issue. In furtherance of the threat to sell the house, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants wrote to her by their Solicitor and asked her to vacate the house. That should the house be sold, she would be rendered homeless.
The defense of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants is that the Plaintiff is the wife of the 1st Defendant, who was eighty-four in 2013 when the defense was filed. He also admitted that he is Togolese but was born in Ghana. That he is now partially resident at Dabala and Togo and that when he was leaving Accra, he asked the Plaintiff to join him, but she refused. The 1st Defendant pleaded further that he moved because of the ill-treatment meted out to him by the Plaintiff and her children, who sometimes beat him up and even refused to give him food.
The 1st Defendant pleaded further that all the eight children he had with the Plaintiff are of age and therefore he is under no obligation to provide them with accommodation. The 1st Defendant denied that he jointly acquired the house with the Plaintiff and pleaded specifically that he built the house before he married the Plaintiff. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants pleaded further that the house had already been sold since the 1st Defendant has relocated, and the house has ceased to be a matrimonial home. The Plaintiff should join her husband if she consi