MAXWELL KWAKU TASSELI v. GIFTY ANKOMAH
2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- I. O. TANKO AMADU JSC (PRESIDING)
- ANTHONY OPPONG JA
- RICHARD ADJEI-FRIMPONG JA
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Property and Real Estate Law
2022
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This Court of Appeal judgment, authored by Richard Adjei-Frimpong JA and joined by I. O. Tanko Amadu JSC (presiding) and Anthony Oppong JA, arises from a Ghanaian matrimonial suit between spouses ordinarily resident in Switzerland whose marriage—contracted in Ghana and converted to an ordinance marriage in Kumasi in 2003—broke down irretrievably. The High Court dissolved the marriage, split an Ampabame No.1 house equally, held an Apemso house non-marital, awarded a Range Rover to the wife, and dismissed a CHF 33,800 debt claim. On appeal, the husband challenged jurisdiction for failure to obtain leave before issuing the petition for service out of Ghana and disputed property/vehicle outcomes. The Court held that leave rules for writs do not apply to petitions under Order 65 and, relying on Marbell, treated any non-compliance as a waivable irregularity. Substantively, it affirmed Apemso as non-marital but varied the Range Rover award to equal sharing, dismissing the appeal subject to that variation.
RICHARD ADJEI-FRIMPONG JA;
The issues in this matrimonial cause now on appeal before us are by no means complicated. As is recurrent with many a matrimonial suit, the quest of the trial at the court below was essentially to determine whether the marriage contracted between the parties stood to be dissolved for having broken down irretrievably and if so, upon its dissolution settle available marital properties as appropriate.
On the facts established before him, the trial judge had no difficulty at all dissolving the ordinance marriage of the parties which to all intents and purposes, was to their satisfaction. Nothing therefore turns on the decree of dissolution in this appeal.
What is in contention here, is how the trial judge determined the issue of property settlement. To put the issue in perspective however, the following facts on record require recollection.
The husband (herein appellant) and wife (herein respondent) both ordinarily resident in Switzerland contracted an Ashanti customary marriage in Ghana which they later had converted, into an ordinance marriage on 31st January 2003 in Kumasi. They thereafter cohabited at different addresses in Switzerland but paid occasional joint and separate visits to Ghana. The marriage sadly produced no issue.
The events preceding the break down of the marriage had been marked by tension and acrimony, at the height of which it became necessary for the Swiss authorities to issue an order of separation of a sort. This was to culminate in the commencement of the instant matrimonial suit by the respondent whose petition contained the following reliefs:
(a) The marriage contracted between the petitioner and the respondent at the marriage registry of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly on 31st of January 2003 be dissolved since the said marriage has broken down beyond reconciliation.
(b) Partitioning of the parties’ house and vacant plots with numbers 3, 1 and 30 at Ampabame No.1 in the Atwima Kwanwoma District and on Obrempong Stool Lands.
(c) Payment of 33800 Swiss francs representing the outstanding balance on a credit facility taken by the petitioner for the respondent in the year 2009.
(d) Return of all the petitioner’s vehicles with respondent or payment of their equivalent in cedis
(e) Any further orders which the Honourable Court may deem fit.
The appellant in an amended answer introduced another property described as Plot No. 9 Block C, Apemso, Kumasi which he alleged was jointly acquired by the two a