[1980]DLHC1570 • April 28, 1980 • High Court
CLERK vs. CLERK
The petitioner, Rev. Carl Henry Clerk, and the respondent, Martha Ayerkor Clerk, were married in 1929 and had five children. They lived apart since 1962. The petitioner filed for divorce in 1964 and again in 1971; the marriage was dissolved in 1973 on grounds of irretrievable breakdown. The respondent sought financial provision and property settlement, particularly the transfer of the matrimonial home, which the petitioner owned and from which the respondent had been residing since 1955.
read moreJUDGMENT OF CECILIA KORANTENG-ADDOW J. The petitioner, Rev. Carl Henry Clerk, and the respondent, Martha Ayerkor Clerk, were married on 6 June 1929. The respondent was then a girl of eighteen years of age. The petitioner was a teacher, but in the course of time he rose to become a minister of the Presbyterian Church and subsequently a Synod Clerk, a post from which he retired. There are five issues of the marriage—all adults now; the youngest, Henry Daniel, is about 32 years old. Since 1962 the couple have lived apart. In 1964 the petitioner sought divorce, but the petition was not granted. In July 1971 fresh divorce petition was presented by the petitioner and by that prayer the marriage was dissolved on 30 April 1973 on the ground that the marriage had broken down irretrievably. The respondent appealed against the order for a decree nisi and the decree absolute. By its judgment dated 28 November 1975, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal: see Clerk v. Clerk [1976] 1 G.L.R. 123.....