MANU v. KUMA

JUDGMENT OF VAN LARE J.S.C.

Van Lare J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This is an appeal from a judgment of D. E. Gwira, Esquire, Commissioner of Assize and Civil Pleas (as he then was) delivered on the 16th June, 1960, in the High Court, Kumasi, dismissing the plaintiff's claim for an amount of £G2,500 alleged to have been spent by her covering a period of ten years for the maintenance and education of four of her five children by her late husband one, Kofi Du, to whom the defendant, Kwabena Kuma, respondent before us, is a successor appointed by customary law. The late Kofi Du was a storekeeper for the United Africa Company Ltd., and served as an evangelist to the Presbyterian Church at Kukuom where he died intestate on the 1st January, 1939, and he was possessed of substantial properties including eight cocoa farms and two houses, all of which estate devolved upon the defendant as his successor.

Although the plaintiff's husband died in 1939 the action was not instituted until June 1958, and the claim is in respect of the immediately preceding ten years, i.e. 1947-1957. This was because prior to the year 1947 there was litigation over the estate of the deceased between the parties, during which time the plaintiff was in possession of three of the cocoa farms to which she laid claim, but she lost them all to the defendant as a result of the litigation ending in 1947 when the defendant inherited all the properties of the deceased. He has since failed to look after the children of the person whom he succeeded. The cost of maintenance and education of the children was borne by their mother, the plaintiff, who brought this action against the defendant, successor to the properties of the deceased father of the children, relying particularly upon an order made by the court of the Chief Commissioner, Ashanti, based upon an arbitration award, and confirmed by the West African Court of Appeal, in a suit between the parties in the Ahafo Native Court, whereby the defendant became responsible to look after the children of his predecessor, the late Kofi Du, and generally upon a successor's liability under customary law. The plaintiff filed a statement of particulars of the expenses of her claim.

The defendant does not deny that there was an arbitration award against him but contends that such an award did not create a binding and enforceable obligation on him to maintain and educate his predecessor's children who belong to their mother's family in a matri