GARRETT vs. GARRETT

By the suit numbered 1190/89, the plaintiff-respondent, the husband, took action against the defendant-applicant, the wife, in the High Court, Accra - laying claim to real property owned by the couple in Ghana. The plaintiff-husband had in fact been declared bankrupt in England in 1985, ie before the commencement in 1989 of the action in the High Court, Accra. After the institution of that action, the applicant herein filed a motion praying the court to strike out the respondent’s writ of summons and the pleadings. Her ground was that the respondent “who was an undischarged bankrupt when he initiated these proceedings, had as a matter of law no capacity to litigate over properties that were subject to the receiving order in bankruptcy.” The effect of that application would, in my view, be that if it succeeded that would be the end of the action. The application however failed. In other words, the trial judge refused to grant it and to strike out the action. Dissatisfied with the ...