[2024]DLSC17879 • December 4, 2024 • Supreme Court •
AUGUSTINA ABENA BOAMAH vs. YAW AMPADU
The petitioner, Augustina Abena Boamah, married the respondent, Yaw Ampadu, in 1985 after completing school. The respondent had purchased a matrimonial home in 1982 before their marriage, which was incomplete at the time. The parties lived elsewhere while completing the home. The petitioner claimed contributions towards completing the matrimonial home and that rent from parts of the home was used to build commercial properties. The respondent denied the petitioner’s contributions and claimed some properties were inherited or acquired before marriage. The dispute arose over the ownership and equitable distribution of the matrimonial home and other properties upon dissolution of the marriage.
read moreJUDGMENT LOVELACE-JOHNSON, JSC: The designation of the parties at the High Court will be maintained in this appeal. On 19th march 2018, the High Court granted the petitioner herein the reliefs sought in her petition in the following terms: The dissolution of the customary marriage between the parties, the settlement of the matrimonial house at Taifa on her, an order that the respondent continue to maintain the children who are still in school or learning a trade and a lump sum of twenty thousand cedis (GHC 20,000.00) as ‘settlement’(alimony). The Court refused the petitioner’s claim for six shops and a bar at Taifa. Being dissatisfied with this judgment, the Respondent appealed to the Court of Appeal. The impugned judgment was affirmed. The Respondent has launched a further appeal to this Court on the following grounds. a. The judgment was against the weight of evidence adduced at the trial b. The Court erred when it held that the marriage between the parties had...