LORD TUCKER
The issue for determination at the trial was settled on the summons for direction as follows:-
“Whether the plaintiff or the defendant is the proper person entitled to the grant of letters to administer the estate of the above-named deceased.”
The contest was therefore between the sole survivor of the deceased’s marriage under the Marriage Ordinance and the lady whom he had married under customary native law on the death of his former wife.
Section 48 (1) of the Marriage Ordinance Cap. 127 (1951 Rev.) is as follows:
“48 (1) Subject to the provisions of the succeeding subsection where any person who is subject to native law or custom contracts a marriage, whether within or without [Ghana], in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance or of any other enactment relating to marriage, or has contracted a marriage prior to the passing of this Ordinance which marriage is validated hereby, and such person dies intestate on or after the 15th day of February, 1909, leaving a wid…