BRENDA VERONICA WARREN & ORS v. SAM OKUDZETO & 3 ORS
2015
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- MARIAMA OWUSU, (JA) - PRESIDING
- AVRIL LOVELACE-JOHNSON, (JA)
- SAEED K. GYAN, (JA
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Probate and Succession
- Evidence Law
2015
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff/Appellant contested the probate determination of her mother's Will, citing fraud and undue influence. The trial High Court dismissed her challenge due to her abandonment of testimony and failure to provide substantial evidence. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the trial court's judgment was legally sound and dismissed the appeal, confirming the validity of the Will. The legal principles reiterated include the primacy of adhering to established legal norms over judicial sympathy, the necessity for those propounding a Will to dispel any suspicions, and the imperative for cross-examination to validate evidence. The appellate courts decision was supported by previous legal precedents and statutory provisions.
SAEED K. GYAN,
Were lamentations and mere passion to be an index for success in litigation I would clearly have said that the Plaintiff/Appellant herein would have scored maximum marks. The circumstances of this case appear to evoke tearful sympathy, and may in some way even possibly be regarded as tragic. However, as may be recalled, Wiredu, JSC (as he then was) in perhaps a similar difficult situation mournfully declared in the Supreme Court case of DEI XI Vrs. DARKE XII (1991) 2GLR 318 at page 341 as follows:
“My sympathies no doubt are with the applicants but I take consolation in what has been said else where that Judicial Sympathy, however plausible, should not be elevated to a principle of law..”
Wiredu, JSC equally pointed out rather sagaciously in FRIMPONG VRS. NYARKO [1998-99] SC GLR 734 at page 742 that the “Justice to be dispensed is justice within the law and not one of sympathy”.
This is an appeal from the Judgment of the High Court, Accra, dated 28th March,2006. The trial High Court by its said decision dismissed the challenge mounted by the Plaintiff/Appellant herein against the grant of probate to the three Defendants/Executors/Respondents herein in respect of the Last Will and Testament of one Verna Eloise Warren a deceased Jamaican long time resident of Ghana who died in Accra on 20th October,2002.
The Will concerning which the Executors aforesaid sought probate, after it had been read at the Registry of the High Court upon the death of the testatrix, and against which the Plaintiff/Appellant filed Notice of Caveat, was dated 25th January,2002. Having rejected the Plaintiffs’ challenge the High Court then made a determination that the Executors had successfully proved the impugned Will in Solemn form and accordingly granted probate to the Executors. It is this determination of the trial High Court that the Plaintiff/Appellant (hereafter referred to as Appellant) is dissatisfied by and aggrieved with and for which reason she is before the Court of Appeal seeking its reversal.
The matter in the Court below ended up as a consolidated suit. The original case namely, Suit No_ PD 46/2003, was filed by the Executors of the Last Will of Verna Eloise Warren, in the persons of Sam Okudzeto, Eunice Brookman-Amissah and Prof. Ablade-Glover, who sought to prove the Will in common form pursuant to Order 1 of the Probate and Administration Rules LI 1515. This application, as noted earlier on, was caveated by the daughter of the deceased, Brend