[1991]DLSC2060 • December 23, 1991 • Supreme Court •
AFRANIE vs. QUARCOO AND ANOTHER
Mr. A. A. Mensah, a hotel proprietor, died in 1985. He had let a 30-room hotel known as 'Hotel de France' to the appellant under a five-year lease. After the lease expired, Mr. Mensah sought to recover possession but was unsuccessful before his death. His personal representatives, charged under his will to manage and preserve his estate, continued the action to recover possession from the appellant, who remained in occupation beyond the lease term.
read moreJUDGMENT OF FRANCOIS J.S.C. Mr A. A. Mensah died on 22 July 1985. His will admitted to probate on 7 October 1985 amply testified to a lifetime of industry and the employment of considerable commercial acumen. For he accumulated a large empire whose extent he did not wish whittled down by sale or other alienation. There was a further insight to his commercial philosophy with the charge to his personal representatives to assist his widow and a son to manage his estate with competence, and not to suffer any diminution of his estate. Among the deceased’s properties was house No. C415/4 which was rechristened by the appellant as “Hotel de France”, when he became a lessee of it. It is this 30-roomed hotel that was the bane of Mr. Mensah’s life. After letting it to the appellant for a term of five years, Mr. Mensah fought unavailingly to recover possession at the end of the five-year term. When he died, his personal representatives in obedience to their charge, stepped into his shoe...