THE REGISTERED TRUSTEES OF AFRIKANIA MISSION v. MAJOR QUARSHIE (RTD) (SUBST. BY MRS. MARY QUARSHIE)

In a statutory-interpretation appeal arising from Ghanas confiscation regime, the Supreme Court, per Benin JSC, reversed a Court of Appeal majority and restored the High Courts judgment for Africania Mission. House No. B2, Senchie Street, Airport Residential Area, formerly owned by Major (later Colonel) K.A. Quarshie, had been confiscated under AFRCD 25 and allocated by Government to Africania Mission, which occupied it from 1987. In January 2009 President J.A. Kufuor signed a deed purporting to deconfiscate Rev. Col. Quashies Labone property; the Attorney-General subsequently issued Exhibit 6A correcting the address to H/No. 2, Senchi Street, Airport. The Supreme Court held that the Confiscated Assets (Removal of Doubt) Law, 1993 (PNDCL 325), under which the deed was issued, had been repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1997 (Act 543) in 1998. Consequently, the deed and addendum were ultra vires and ineffective. Status quo under AFRCD 25 remained, subject only to CHRAJ under section 35(2), so Africania Missions allocation stands; the appeal succeeds.