[1976]DLHC175 • February 5, 1976 • High Court
ABEBRESEH vs. KAAH AND OTHERS
The plaintiff, a customary law widow of James Benjamin Aidoo, claimed ownership or right to remain in house No. J/I182, Awaso, which she and her late husband built and lived in exclusively. The defendant, the customary successor and grantee of letters of administration, sold the house without the plaintiff's knowledge. The plaintiff asserted joint ownership based on her substantial financial and material contributions to the purchase of land and construction of the house, and alternatively a possessory life interest as widow and mother of the deceased's children.
read moreJUDGMENT OF SARKODEE J. The plaintiff, a trader in textiles, meat and general goods, is the widow of one James Benjamin Aidoo who died intestate on 8 November 1969. She and the deceased were married under the customary law for about 36 years during which they had ten children, seven of whom are alive. The second co-defendant, Albert Evans Dapaah, is the customary successor of the deceased and grantee of letters of administration of the deceased’s estate. He was a maternal cousin of the deceased. During his lifetime the deceased lived exclusively with his wife and children at Awaso, in the Sefwi Anwiaso district, first in rented quarters and later, about 1959 or 1960, in house No. J/I-182, Awaso, the subject-matter in dispute. The plaintiff and her children, four of whom are minors, continued to live and are still living in the said house. However, some time in January 1974, the defendant Opanyin Kwasi Kaah gave the plaintiff notice to quit the house in the following terms:.....