ANIM-ADDO AND OTHERS vs. MENSAH ALIAS BIAMA AND OTHERS

The late Mr. Patrick Kwaku AnimAddo made a will on 5 September 1987 appointing Mrs. Addae Mensah alias Nana Abena Biama as executor to administer his interests in certain companies and bequeathed benefits to Abena Asantewaa and her descendants. The children of the deceased challenged the will, contending that the bequests to 'descendants of Abena Asantewaa' offended the rule against perpetuities, were class gifts with uncertain beneficiaries, and violated rules on accumulations and inalienability. The plaintiffs sought declarations that these dispositions were null and void, injunctions restraining assent to the properties, and accounts of rents and profits. The defendants argued that Ghanaian customary law (Kwahu Akan) applied, which does not recognize the English rules against perpetuities, and that the class-closing rule applied to the class gifts.

JUDGMENT OF KPEGAH JSC. On 5 September 1987 the late Mr. Patrick Kwaku Anim-Addo made a will in which he provided as follows: “I appoint Mrs Addae Mensah alias Nana Abena Biama as one of the executors to administer my interest in the company, of Ghana Textile Manufacturing Co Ltd and pay the benefits, profits to Abena Asantewaa, my niece, in her lifetime and after her death should pass on to the descendants of her children. I give and bequeath all my trinkets (gold) to my niece Abena Asantewaa and after her death to pass to her descendants. I appoint Yaw Asirifi and Gideon Nyarku to run Kwamin Trading Co Ltd as directors and to administer the company and invest the benefits and profits to the descendants of Abena Asantewaa. I devise and bequeath the residue of my real estate to my trustees upon trust as follows: As to house: to collect rents and after paying annual rates, taxes, etc to invest the net rents in government bonds, and as to personal estate upon trust to ca.....