DAABOA DAGARTI vs. DORNIPEA

The plaintiff's deceased elder brother married the defendant's daughter under customary law. The daughter escaped from her husband's home while pregnant. The plaintiff was instructed to inform the daughter's uncle (the defendant's elder brother) about her escape and pregnancy. The uncle sent a message to the Wogu people where the daughter had gone to stay with a man she was betrothed to. The Wogu people returned her to the uncle's village, where she delivered the child. The defendant refused to acknowledge paternity and to hand over the child despite agreeing to do so before local chiefs, leading to the plaintiff's claim for custody of the child and return of dowry. The Circuit Court upheld the plaintiff's claim for custody but dismissed the dowry claim. The defendant contested the paternity, claiming the child belonged to another man, Kuukuri, whom the daughter married after divorcing the plaintiff's brother.

JUDGMENT OF EDWARD WIREDU J.A. This appeal is from the decision of the Circuit Court, Wa, dated 2 April 1980. The decision upheld a claim by the plaintiff-respondent (hereafter referred to simply as the plaintiff) for the custody of a child he claimed was born to his deceased elder brother and the daughter of the defendant-appellant (also hereafter referred to simply as the defendant). In that same decision the plaintiff’s claim for the return of the dowry of the said marriage between his deceased brother and the daughter of the defendant was dismissed for reasons which cannot be justified by the evidence on record. But as there has not been any appeal from that order by the plaintiff, we refrain from interfering with same. The defendant’s daughter testified in the case as his second witness and will in this judgment be referred to simply as the second defendant witness when it becomes necessary to refer to her. The facts which have provoked the present appeal as presented by t...