PETER ADJEI v. MARGARET ADJEI
2021
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- APPAU, JSC (PRESIDING)
- PWAMANG, JSC
- DORDZIE (MRS.), JSC
- LOVELACE-JOHNSON (MS.), JSC
- AMADU, JSC
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Constitutional Law
2021
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
A Ghana Supreme Court matrimonial property and financial provision case arose from a twelve-year customary marriage between a husband and wife with two children. The High Court dissolved the marriage, granted custody to the wife with the husband having access, settled the uncompleted matrimonial home (one of four flats at Cantonments built on the husbands pre-acquired plot) on the wife, awarded GHc500,000 alimony and GHc1,500 monthly maintenance, and rejected a claim to two stores. The husband appealed; the Court of Appeal reversed the property settlement, affirmed alimony and maintenance, and reiterated custody with limited access. The wife appealed against the reversal; the husband cross-appealed the alimony. In a majority opinion by Appau, JSC, joined by Pwamang, JSC and Amadu, JSC, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal fully and dismissed both appeals, holding the joint-acquisition presumption was rebutted by loan-funded acquisition and upholding the alimony under Act 367. Dissenting opinions by Dordzie, JSC and Lovelace-Johnson, JSC would have restored the High Courts property settlement and sustained the alimony.
THE MAJORITY DECISION OF THE COURT WAS DELIVERED BY APPAU JSC
APPAU, JSC:-
This appeal originates from the High Court in a matrimonial cause initiated by the man of the marriage as Petitioner against the wife as Respondent. The petitioner prayed the trial court to dissolve the twelve year old customary marriage between him and the Respondent. The Petitioner again requested for custody of the two children of the marriage aged eleven (11) and eight (8) years old. The Respondent, in an amended answer to the petition, cross-petitioned and prayed for five (5) reliefs against the Petitioner. The first was that the matrimonial home, which is one of four flats or units of flats constructed by the Petitioner on his self-acquired plot of land at Cantonments, Accra, should be settled on her. In her second relief, she prayed for a lump-sum payment of the sum of four hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GHc400,000.00) to her by the Petitioner by way of alimony and then thirdly, a monthly stipend of two thousand Ghana cedis (GHc2,000.00) as maintenance for herself and the two children. She again prayed to be given two (2) out of a chain of stores (number not stated), on the Spintex Road, Accra and then an order that the Petitioner be made to foot the cost of litigation.
The Decision of the High Court
The trial High Court granted the Petitioner’s prayer for the dissolution of the marriage but dismissed the second one for custody of the two children. The court granted Respondent custody of the children but allowed Petitioner limited rights of access to them. On Respondent’s cross-petition, the trial High Court granted the first three (3) reliefs prayed for by the Respondent. The trial Court made an order that the matrimonial home, which is one out of the four units of flats built by the Petitioner, be settled on the Respondent. The trial Court further ordered Petitioner to pay the sum of five hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GHc500,000.00) to the Respondent as alimony and one thousand five hundred Ghana cedis (GHc1,500.00) instead of the GHc2,000.00 prayed for, as monthly maintenance for the two children who should be in the custody of the Respondent.
The reason the trial court gave for settling one of the four units of flats on the Cantonment plot on the Respondent was that the said flats were acquired by the Petitioner during the subsistence of the marriage at a time the Respondent was the one; “nurturing the family unit by cooking meals, cleaning, doing laundry and all the