[1988]DLCA723 • January 28, 1988 • Court of Appeal
BERCHIE-BADU vs. BERCHIE-BADU
The parties were married in London in 1970 and had three children. The petitioner filed for divorce in 1983 on grounds including the respondent's alleged fraudulent change of title to land purchased by the petitioner for a matrimonial home. The ownership and financing of the matrimonial home at Nzima-Atwima became a central issue, with conflicting claims about who financed and constructed the house. The trial court dissolved the marriage, awarded custody of the children, and declared the matrimonial home the property of the petitioner. The respondent appealed the ownership ruling.
read moreJUDGMENT OF OSEI-HWERE J.A. Osei-Hwere J.A. delivered the first judgment at the invitation of Wuaku J.S.C. The parties were married at Harringay Registry Office, London on 22 August 1970. They had three issues between them. On 4 March 1983 the petitioner filed her petition for divorce on the ground that the marriage had broken down irretrievably and beyond reconciliation. One of the grounds (for the purpose of this appeal) stated in her petition as contributing to the breakdown was that the respondent had fraudulently changed the title to the land at Nzima-Atwima the petitioner had purchased with her own money for the purpose of constructing a house. Wherefore, paragraph 12 (d) of her petition prayed the court to decree: “That a transfer of the family’s own matrimonial house now under construction at Nzima-Atwima be made to the petitioner on trust for the said three children of the marriage; the said plot having been purchased earlier by the petitioner for ¢150 of her own mo...