Try asking the following...
EXTRACTS FROM JUDGMENT: (1) “The fact that the deceased in the circumstances was a member of his mother’s family cannot, among the Anlo community, a patrilineal community, mean the same thing, at least for purposes of succession, as it means in a community status (and I prefer the term ‘community status’ to ‘tribal status’) from that of this mother, and that is all that his ‘membership’ of his mother’s family can mean. It means in effect that he was an Anlo man because his mother was Anlo. Having acquired the status of an Anlo man, succession to his property follows the usual Anlo law of succession which gives to the children of an Anlo man who dies intestate the entire beneficial interest in their deceased father’s estate [see Tamakloe v Attipoe (1951) D.C (Land0 ‘48-‘51, 378.] As the deceased was survived by his children there can be no justification in law or in any of the circumstances relating to this matter for pronouncing the mother’s family the rightful successors to the deceased’s estate. The alleged appointment of the second respondent as successor, if he was so appointed, does not operate to vest in him any beneficial interest in the estate.
If this appeal were to be determined by reference to customary law, I would have no hesitation in declaring the children, who on the evidence, are not minors, or the eldest of them, the proper persons entitled to a grant of letters of administration in respect of their deceased father’s estate.”
(2) “No family has a vested interest in the self-acquired property of a member of the family. The family’s interest in such property is essentially a contingent one, and depends for its vesting not only on the owner of the property dying intestate but also in the property being available at the time of the death of the owner. An owner of property which is not incumbered by any family claim has the unfettered right to do with his property as he wishes without any reference to the family [Yeboah v Tse, 3 WALR 300 at p. 301, per Ollennu J. (as he then was)]. He is always in a position effectively to prevent the family from taking any interest in his property by sale or gift in his lifetime of by making a will disposing of his property in its entirety and not giving any interest therein to the family. The law of Ghana knows no principle of ‘the undisposable portion’ of the estate of a deceased person.”