The Supreme Court on the 31st day of March 2026 in the case of Republic v High Court Ex Parte Emmanuel Opare (Abusuapanyin Sandys Odoi & 2 Ors Interested Parties) Suit No. J5/33/2026 has endorsed a ruling of the Koforidua High Court dated 20th November, 2025 dismissing a motion filed by the Applicant, Emmanuel Opare on grounds of capacity.

In a lively back and forth between Counsel for the Applicant, the learned Mawuena Agbenoto and the Supreme Court Bench constituted by Tanko Amadu, Asiedu, Kwoffie, Adjei and Ackaah-Boafo JJSC,the Court expressed the view that a court may determine the issue of capacity of a party by relying on affidavit evidence presented by both parties and not necessarily at trial as advanced by the Applicant.

The Supreme Court animated by its stout disagreement with Counsel for the Applicant that the Koforidua High Court Presided by H/L Justice George Krafa Addae erred by relying on affidavit evidence to dismiss a motion by the Applicant on grounds of capacity, suggested to Counsel for the applicant that a party aggrieved by a decision of a court in the determination of capacity relying on only affidavit evidence has recourse to an appeal and not the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

STAR OF THE MONTH - Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson ESQ.

The Apex Court in the voice of the respected and well published Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei held the view that a judge has the discretion depending on the facts and evidence before it to determine capacity on evidence sworn to in an affidavit or offered during trial. Thus, a decision by a judge to determine capacity on affidavit evidence was not an error apparent on the face of the record.

In a satisfactory voice characteristic of his control of proceedings when presiding, the President of the Bench, H/L Justice Tanko Amadu dismissed the certiorari application of the Applicant, Emmanuel Opare with cost of GH¢10,000 in favour of each of the interested parties.

The Court in unanimity thus upheld arguments of the Interested Parties as filed on their behalf by their Counsel, Jonathan Owusu Asare that the Koforidua High Court acted regularly when it dismissed a motion of Emmanuel Opare at the High Court for lack of capacity as Head of the Odoi Kese Family, a family which reels under the effect of a decision of the High Court which granted ownership of over 16,000 acres of land situate in the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions to the Obosomase Anafo (Kyenku Asona) family.