BARNIEH II vs. MENSAH AND OTHERS

The applicant sought a stay of execution pending appeal against a High Court ruling in an estate matter. The High Court had held that the applicant lacked capacity to institute the proceedings because he was neither the head of family nor the customary successor of the late Opanin Kojo Mensah alias Kojo Teng. The applicant argued that unless the ruling was stayed, the respondents, as executors, would proceed to implement the will of the deceased, including disposition of properties which he claimed were family properties and not the deceased’s self-acquired properties. The Court of Appeal treated the application, in substance, as one for an injunction to restrain the executors from carrying out the will pending appeal. Portion of judgment: “It merely held that the applicant was not clothed with power to institute the proceedings he did. It held he was neither head of family nor customary successor... and was bereft of capacity to sue.” Also: “Looked at that way, it is in reality an application to us to grant an injunction restraining the respondents as executors of the will from carrying out its provisions until the determination of this appeal.”