REBECCA ANSONG v. MAAME KOSHIWA & ANOTHER
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP, MR. JUSTICE F.G. KORBIEH, J.A
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Property and Real Estate Law
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiff sought legal recognition as a tenant and other reliefs, claiming the house was her matrimonial home after her husband's death. The court held she lacked the capacity to sue as her husband's tenancy automatically ended upon his death and the plaintiff did not demonstrate the necessary legal capacity. The 1st defendant was found to be a sub-lessee, not just a caretaker, and the plaintiff's action to evict the 1st defendant was wrongful, leading to the dismissal of the plaintiff's claims and an award in favor of the 1st defendant with costs against the plaintiff.
The plaintiff herein sued the defendants herein for four reliefs, namely
1. A declaration that as the spouse of the legal tenant of House No. AD. 17B, Community 5, Tema she was entitled to be recognized as the legal tenant of the said house.
2. An order to the 2nd defendant to transfer the said house into the plaintiff’s name.
3. Perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, task force, workmen, assigns etc. from ejecting the plaintiff from the said house.
4. Damages for trespass.
In the accompanying statement of claim, the plaintiff averred, inter alia, as follows: the house in question was, at all material times, her matrimonial home; her husband, as the legal tenant of the house, introduced (in writing) the 1st defendant to the 2nd defendant as his caretaker as he was travelling to his village; the 2nd defendant was never to change tenancy into the name of the 1st defendant; the plaintiff’s husband later travelled to Nigeria where he died and was buried; the plaintiff returned to Tema in 1995 and found strangers in the house; these strangers however subsequently left the house and gave her absolute possession of the same; the plaintiff then informed the 2nd defendant that as widow of the legal tenant she was entitled to be recognized by the 2nd defendant as the legal tenant of the house; the 2nd defendant later sent its task force to eject her from the house but plaintiff managed to re-enter the house and is in actual possession of it; the 1st defendant had to leave because of the hostility of the people living around the house; the plaintiff will have nowhere to go with her children should she be ejected again from the house; wherefore the plaintiff claimed as per her writ of summons.
The 2nd defendant filed a statement of defence in which it denied most of the material allegations of fact made by the plaintiff. In addition, the 2nd defendant averred that the plaintiff was not the spouse of Daniel Antwi but a divorcee. The 2nd defendant also averred as follows: that the persons found by the plaintiff in the house upon her return from the village were caretakers of the 1st defendant, that its housing policy only allowed spouses living in the rental unit at the time of the death of the legal tenant to be assigned the unit, that Daniel Antwi had sub-let the house in breach of his tenancy agreement with the 2nd defendant, that the tenancy agreement between Daniel Antwi and the 2nd defendant was a personal contract and upon the de