The Chief Justice has been asked by the Supreme Court to look into the actions of the judge and a court registrar who were involved in a case concerning the estate of a dead pastor.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Jones Dotse, ruled unanimously on Tuesday [June 6, 2023] that the case's precedents were damaging to the judiciary.
Through the referral, the court requested the Chief Justice to look into the case's judge from the High Court in Tema in 2022, Justice Emmanuel Ankamah, who is now a judge on the Court of Appeal, and the High Court's former registrar, Sabastian Agbo.
"In the opinion of the group, it is reasonable to bring this matter to the Chief Justice so that he might order additional inquiries into the actions of the learned trial judge and Sebastian Agbo, the High Court of Tema's Registrar at the time the sordid activities took place.
The court ruled that this should apply to all cops who participated in any way in this reprehensible type of behaviour.
The verdict was Justice Jones Dotse's farewell ruling before his retirement on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
Avril Lovelace-Johnson, Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Henrietta Mensah Bonsu, and Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi were the other justices on the court.
Certiorari request
After granting a certiorari motion to overturn Justice's ruling, the highest court in the nation sent the case to the Chief Justice.
which dismissed an objection to the letters of administration governing the division of the assets in the estate of the late Rev. Emmanuel Dorgbadzi.
A caveat is a legal document submitted to the court to block the prospective executors or administrators of an estate from being granted authorization to manage the estate's assets.
When delivering the ruling, Justice Dotse ruled that the court had violated natural justice principles since Justice Ankamah had not given the caveators a chance to be heard before dismissing the caveat.
The evidence on file indicated that the matter was not scheduled for hearing, yet oddly, it was heard in front of the caveators without their knowledge, with the presiding judge striking the letters of administration and removing the aforementioned condition for lack of prosecution.
Justice Dotse said that the irregularities in the case's resolution indicated that the presiding judge "appeared to be biassed against the applicants."
The court questioned Justice Ankamah's decision to strike out the proviso once again since it raised serious concerns about the parties who submitted the letters of administration and presented issues of capacity.
Therefore, it is obvious that the affidavit submitted by the petitioners in this case generated substantial factual and legal concerns about the order in which the letters of administration should be granted.
Given that, the learned trial judge should have exercised caution rather than disregarding this proviso in a casual manner, the court ruled.
The Supreme Court nullified the Tema High Court's ruling and forbade Justice Ankamah and the High Court Registrar from ever taking up the issue again.
Undervaluation
The valuations of the assets in the estate mentioned in the letter of administration were also called into doubt by the Supreme Court, which described them as being undervalued and misleading.
For instance, the letters of administration placed a hospital in Obuasi at a value of GH 60,000, a school there at GH 35,000, and the deceased's home in Tema at GH 30,000.
In light of this, the Tema High Court was also referred to by the Supreme Court by the interested parties in the certiorari case who submitted a letter of administration there, as well as by their solicitors.
"We further ask the Honourable Chief Justice to order an investigation into the apparent scheme by the parties involved in this case to devalue the estate of the deceased.
It should be required of learned counsel, who submitted the application for and on behalf of the interested parties, to explain the rationale behind the valuation of the properties listed below. the tribunal added.
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