THE HARTLEY TRUST GHANA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION vs MRS. GEORGINA MENSAH DARRAH
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE K. A. GYIMAH
Areas of Law
- Equity and Trusts
- Property and Real Estate Law
- Evidence Law
- Civil Procedure
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This High Court judgment resolves a protracted dispute over The Lord is My Shepherd Educational Centre at Nyanyano‑Kakraba between the Hartley Trust Ghana Educational Foundation, a UK‑registered charity chaired by David John Mustill, and Georgina Mensah. The Trust traced its legal capacity to a Declaration of Trust and Charity Commission registration. Mustill raised funds through British Airways networks and donors, acquired sixteen plots, and oversaw construction, with the lease executed in the joint names of the Trust, Mensah, and Mustill. Mensah registered the school as a sole proprietorship, operated allied businesses, and reported periodically to Mustill. Applying equitable principles and the Ghana Evidence Act, the court found a resulting trust: Mensah’s legal title was held for the Trust, which owns the centre. The court granted injunctive and surrender‑of‑documents orders, declined accounting and fraud reliefs, dismissed Mensah’s counterclaim, held recovery of possession moot, and made no order as to costs.
Introduction The facts of this suit are interesting and somewhat brings to the fore the issue of schools under trees which has been a major problem that has confronted our educational system over the years and which the plaintiff supposedly sought to solve in its own small way.
Plaintiff’s Case The plaintiff describes itself as a Trust registered with the United Kingdom Charity Commission with its chairman being David Mustill who used to work with the British Airways as a senior flight dispatcher but is now retired.
The sole object of the Trust according to the plaintiff is to advance education in Kasoa through the provision of an educational centre, playing fields, workshops and other developments that are charitable at law.
The plaintiff avers that during one of the chairman’s visits to Ghana around the year 1994, he was touched by the plight of children of a school at Nyanyano near Kasoa who were studying under a tree and he therefore decided to help them out of their plight.
He went back to the UK and single handedly raised funds to commence an educational centre for the community.
This eventually led to the establishment of the plaintiff organization by a declaration of Trust in November 1996. The declaration of Trust was amended in December 1998. The plaintiff avers that its chairman met the defendant who was a waitress at the Sun Spot Hotel, Accra where he was lodging and she agreed to help him realise his dream.
This was because the defendant claimed she knew of several contacts who could help him in that endeavour.
The plaintiff avers that its chairman initially bought four plots of land at an amount of £1, 200. 00 together with a bottle of schnapps.
He later acquired an additional twelve plots to make it a total of sixteen plots of land on which the said educational project is currently situated.
It is the plaintiff’s case that David Mustill made the grantors of the land include the name of the defendant on the title deeds because he was wrongly advised that as a foreigner he could not acquire land in Ghana except with the involvement of a Ghanaian.
The plaintiff further avers that when the story of the school was sounded out and things began unfolding, it got funding from various sources including the Hartley Trust Ghana Educational Foundation, British Airways and UNICEF Change for Food Programme amongst others.
It is the plaintiff’s case that the tight schedule of their chairman who was in full time employment with the British Airway