ADDO AND ANOTHER V. MANKO

ANNAN J.A.: The point for determination in this appeal concerns the right of succession to the self-acquired property of an intestate male member of a patrilineal family. The claim being made by the appellants on behalf of the children of the male intestate is that they are exclusively entitled to the immediate beneficial enjoyment of the self-acquired property of their deceased father and that any other interest must be contingent and must therefore be postponed to their right of immediate enjoyment.

The respondent, on behalf of the Kofi Broni family, the deceased’s relatives, contends that at customary law the self-acquired property of a member of a family becomes family property upon his death intestate and therefore the children of the male intestate cannot have any exclusive or prior right to the beneficial enjoyment of the intestate’s property since they constitute a part and not the whole of the inheriting family of the deceased member for purposes of succession to his self-acqu…