[1959]DLCA1992 • October 27, 1959 • Court of Appeal
ASUMAH vs. KHAIR
The plaintiff alleged that the defendant seduced his daughter, Hannah Asumah, resulting in pregnancy. The defendant admitted paternity but claimed that he was married to the girl according to customary law at the time of pregnancy. The dispute centered on whether the customary marriage rites had been completed before the pregnancy, affecting the legal status of the child and the claim for maintenance.
read moreThis is an appeal by the defendant, with a cross-appeal by the plaintiff, from the judgment of a Commissioner of Assize and Civil Pleas, delivered in Accra on the 12th February, 1959. On the 13th October, 1959, we allowed the appeal, and we dismissed the cross appeal. We now proceed to state our reasons for those decisions. (His lordship stated the facts and continued:—) No evidence was produced by the plaintiff to show that there was any abnormality about the girl’s pregnancy which could account for a pregnancy lasting fifteen or sixteen months. In these circumstances, the presumption is that the gestation took the normal period of nine months, and that the evidence of the defendant that the girl became pregnant in September, 1956 should be preferred to that of the plaintiff. However, as will appear presently, it is immaterial (for purposes of determining whether or not the defendant was married to the girl according to customary law) whether the pregnancy took place before, o...