YANKAH AND OTHERS
V.
ADMINISTRATOR-GENERAL AND ANOTHER

(1971) JELR 69083 (CA)

Court of Appeal 12 Jul 1971 Ghana
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- The Supreme Court held that a will or codicil proved in common form may, upon challenge by an interested party, be required to be proved in solemn form; previous probate in common form is not conclusive. - On the evidence, the codicil was

Case Details

Judges:APALOO J.S.C.,JIAGGE JA,SOWAH J.A.
Counsel:P. A. ADJETEY FOR THE APPELLANTS; J. B. QUASHIE-IDUN FOR THE RESPONDENTS.
Other Citations:[1971] 2 GLR 186

APALOO J.S.C.: Apaloo J. S.C. delivered the judgement of the court. This appeal is from the judgment of Charles Crabbe J. (as he then was) in which he declined to revoke the codicil of the late J. T. N. Yankah who died at Accra on 7 September 1964.

The testator was a schoolmaster of acknowledged eminence. Some years before his death, he took ill and was in and out of hospital by turns. The medical evidence shows that he was suffering from a blood disease known as leukaemia. It would seem that the testator had a premonition of his approaching end. He accordingly decided to dispose of his property by will. Being a scholar and a man of the world, he was not unknowledgeable about how to do this. He himself put his wishes in writing and requested Mr. Caseley-Hayford to put it in legal language.

The latter is a relation of his by marriage being a first cousin to Mrs. Yankah. The evidence also shows that Mr. Caseley-Hayford was on terms of great intimacy with the testator and his wife. He and …

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