THOMPSON v. THOMPSON

JUDGMENT OF AGYEPONG J.

In this suit, the claim of the plaintiff against the defendant is for:

"(a) a declaration that he, the plaintiff, and other children of S. A. Thompson (deceased) are the beneficial owners of house No. D.725/4, Accra, and other properties of the deceased;

(b) an account of all rents collected from the said house from April 1962;

(c) an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his servants or agents from collecting rents in respect of the premises or otherwise dealing with the said house; and

(d) an order that the defendant shall surrender to the plaintiff all title deeds and other documents relating to any property of the deceased now in the possession of the defendant."

The facts of this case are simple and free from complexity: Both the plaintiff and the defendant are Yorubas from Nigeria resident in Ghana. The plaintiff's father, S. A. Thompson (deceased), was also a Yoruba resident in Ghana, and died a Yoruba, intestate, in Ghana, on 16 May 1960, leaving landed properties in Accra, namely, house No. C.133/1, Adabraka, Accra; house No. [p.540] 109/1, Adabraka, Accra; house No. D.725/4, Tudu, Accra and a plot of land at Brewery Road, Accra, as well as money in his banking accounts at Standard Bank (Ghana) Ltd., Tudu Branch, Accra and Barclays Bank, High Street, Accra. He also left some estate in Nigeria.

The defendant is the son of E. B. Thompson, Snr. (deceased), also a Yoruba resident in Ghana, who died a Yoruba, intestate, in Ghana, in 1912. The said S. A. Thompson and E. B. Thompson, Snr. were the sons of two brothers.

On the death of S. A. Thompson in 1960, the plaintiff, one J. D. Thompson, Victoria W. Martins and the defendant were appointed joint administrators of the deceased's estate on 11 November 1960. A certified true copy of the letters of administration was tendered in evidence by the plaintiff herein as exhibit A.

The plaintiff herein in this action claims that by Yoruba customary law, he and his brothers and sisters are entitled to inherit the whole of the estate of their deceased father. His counsel contended relying on Youhana v. Abboud [1974] 2 G.L.R. 201, C.A. that the personal law of the deceased should govern the succession to the deceased's landed and other properties situate in Ghana and that the personal law was the Yoruba customary law of succession. That customary law of succession was that when a Yoruba dies intestate, his children alone inherit the deceased's estate. It is