REPUBLIC v. MAJOR CLIFFORD ATTA WIRROM (RTD)

MARFUL-SAU, JA: -

This appeal is taken against the ruling of the High Court sitting at Cape Coast dated the 28th November 2011. Three grounds were formulated in the Notice of Appeal filed on the 7th December 2011 and found at page 140 of the record of appeal. The grounds are as follows:-

‘’i)The ruling/decision of the Court has effectively undermined a subsisting order made earlier on by the Court IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF JOSEPH DUMAH QUAISON(DECEASED) for the parties to lead evidence in support of their dispositions in their respective affidavits.

ii) The Respondent/Appellant has not been duly served with any judgment and therefore could not be said to have wilfully disobeyed any order or judgment in any previous suit.

iii)The Applicants/Respondents failed to satisfy the standard of proof as required of them by law and the Court erred in holding that the Respondent/Appellant was liable for contempt.’’

Having studied the record of appeal, I am of the opinion that the appeal raises one fundamental issue to be resolved which is whether the conviction of the appellant for contempt is justified in law. I will address this issue but first let me appraise the proceedings that have given cause to the appeal.

The facts of this case are simple. On the 10th day of May 1969, one Joseph Dumah Quaison executed a document as his last Will and Testament. By that Will the testator appointted one Joseph Acquah alias Kweku Aduakwa the Executor of the Will, charged to distribute the properties to persons mentioned therein. However by paragraph 3 of the Will the testator appointed his nephew Atta Wirrom, the respondent/appellant herein, Trustee of his building in Accra.

On an allegation that the said Atta Wirrom had mismanaged the affairs of the house in Accra, an action was commenced in the High Court Accra to remove him as the Trustee of the house. In that action a default judgment was entered against the respondent/appellant herein on the 14th April 1987, discharging him as the trustee of the estate.

Nothing seemed to have happened between the respondent/ appellant and the estate till the Applicant/Respondents herein applied for the grant of Letters of Administration for the estate of Joseph Dumah Quaison(Deceased) in Suit No.E4/73/09 filed on the 9th July 2009 in the High Court, Cape Coast. While the application was pending the respondent/appellant filed a caveat against the application for the grant of Letters of Administration. On the 8th February 2011, th