BARIMAH vs. ANIMAH

JUDGEMENT Afreh JA. This is another example of how members of a family of a successful person, who while alive has acquired some property, dissipate their resources and perhaps those of the estate of the deceased in a protracted litigation over succession to him and the distribution of his property. Kwaku Owusu died intestate on 6 February 1972 leaving behind properties including farms, house No OI 161, Kumasi, and house No ME 130, also in Kumasi. He also had three sisters, two of whom survived him. At the fortieth day rites, members of his family met to choose his successor and to distribute his property. They chose Ofosuhene, a son of the second sister, Afua Achaamaa, as his successor. They also gave him house No OI 161 a one-story house or dantia which Kwaku Owusu used to occupy, as custom demanded. They gave house No ME 130 to the most senior sister, Akua Kru, and her children, and farms at Ntotoroso in the Brong-Ahafo Region to the youngest sister Afua Kimah. A son of Aku...