YALLEY JNR vs. KELL AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF LUTTERODT JA. The late Amos Thomas Yalley, by his will, disposed of house No 27/2, Ahanta Road, Takoradi as his personal property. This sparked off a legal dispute between the plaintiff-respondents (hereinafter referred to as the respondents), who are his head of family and sister respectively, on the one hand and the defendant-appellant (hereinafter referred to as the appellant), his son executor-beneficiary under the said will on the other hand. The respondents had, in the court below sought a declaration that the said property is family property and prayed for a further order “detaching the said property from the estate of the deceased.” The only major common ground between the parties had been this, that the land on which the building stood, was originally leased to Ekua Inkuntomponyi, the mother of both the second respondent and the late Yalley. She died in 1939 and the lease expired in 1954. The case of the respondents was that when upon the death of thei...