MENSAH v. MENSAH

In a matrimonial cause before Hayfron‑Benjamin J., a wife sought dissolution of a monogamous marriage under Ghana’s Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971 (Act 367), alleging irretrievable breakdown. Married in England in July 1966, the couple later cohabited in Accra; both are lawyers, she a law officer at the Attorney‑General’s office and he a practitioner. The petition—supplemented by better particulars—alleged assaults from the outset, refusal by the husband to cooperate with medical efforts to address fertility, and repeated insults about childlessness, causing severe mental distress. She left the matrimonial home around 20 March 1971 and remained apart. The husband referenced a Korle Bu Hospital report and a miscarriage. The court contrasted Act 367 with the English Divorce Reform Act, emphasized pleading and proof duties, and applied an objective standard requiring grave conduct. It found section 2(1)(b) satisfied but section 2(1)(f) unproven, declined adjournment under section 8 due to no reasonable possibility of reconciliation, found no need for an inquest, held the marriage broken down beyond reconciliation, dissolved it, and awarded ¢150 costs.