MRS ELIZABETH OSEI v. MADAM ALICE AFUA KORANG

JUDGMENT

AYEBI J.A.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the High Court, Accra dated 8th April 2005. The appellant was the defendant at the trial court whiles the respondent was the plaintiff. The plaintiff/respondent is the widow of the deceased son of the defendant/appellant. The suit is therefore a contest between a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law over H/No. B/208, Anya Onyinase Kokoroko, New Gbawe.

The reliefs plaintiff/respondent claimed at the trial court are:

(a) That the defendant/appellant be restrained from removing her from her matrimonial home,

(b) A declaration that the matrimonial home situate at No. B/208, Anya Onyinase Kokoroko, New Gbawe was built by her late husband.

The case put forward by the plaintiff/respondent in support of her claim is that she got married to Stephen Kwame Osei, son of the defendant/appellant in 1990 under the Ordinance. In the course of the marriage the husband put up the house. The husband however died in 2000. After his death, defendant/appellant who was living somewhere moved into her matrimonial home and started claiming ownership of the house built by her husband and herself during the course of the marriage.

Defendant/appellant denied the claim of ownership of the plaintiff/respondent. She averred that her relocation to the house was arranged with her deceased son, an arrangement which the plaintiff/respondent was aware of long before the death of her son. Defendant/appellant asserted that the house is her self-acquired property, the construction of which started in 1987 and was completed by 1989 long before her late son married the plaintiff/respondent. Defendant/appellant maintained she allowed her late son to occupy the house as a licensee. She thus counter-claimed for:

(a) A declaration that defendant is the owner of H/No. B/208, Anya Onyinase Kokoroko by virtue of her having used her own money to purchase the land on which she had used her own resources to construct a one storey building with an outhouse thereon.

(b) An order that the plaintiff and her late husband lived and occupied H/No. B/208 as licensees of the defendant.

(c) An order that the plaintiff be given three months to give absolute vacant possession of the said house to the defendant.

In the course of the trial, defendant/appellant amended relief (a) of the counter-claim to read:

“A declaration that defendant is the owner of H/No. B/208 by virtue of her having used her own money to purchase the land on which she had used h