[2025]DLSC18378 • June 11, 2025 • Supreme Court •
GODFRED AGYEDOWA BOADI AND 2 ORS vs. KWAKU ADDO
The case concerns a dispute over the estate of the late Opanin Kwaku Boadi, who died intestate in 1962. The deceased was an Akan from a matrilineal system. The defendants, his surviving children, sought a share of the estate through customary arbitration before the Kadehene and his elders. The plaintiff, the customary successor, challenged the arbitration award in court, claiming the redistribution was unlawful as the estate had already vested in the family under customary law.
read moreJUDGMENT ADJEI-FRIMPONG JSC: The subject of this appeal is not of any wide ambit. Following a dispute over the properties of one Opanin Kwaku Boadi (the deceased), the disputants appeared before the Kadehene and his elders in what ended up as customary arbitral proceedings. Upon the announcement of a decision after hearing, the losing side sought to reverse same in the High Court. What transpired has culminated in this appeal. The deceased, late of Kade died in 1962. To date, his acquisition of a number of properties in his lifetime has suffered no viable debate. He died intestate. As an Akan from a matrilineal system, the question about the status of those properties upon his death is readily answered in law which we shall state in due course. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Defendants/Appellants/Respondents (herein Defendants) are some of his surviving children. The Plaintiff/Appellant/Respondent (herein Plaintiff) became his customary successor, the third in line. The deceased had ...