Contested wills and testaments in Ghana: exploring the legal claim for reasonable provision for dependants

Abstract

Ghanaian law allows persons to execute Wills as the legal means by which property acquired during one’s lifetime could be disposed of, in the event of death. The law follows the intentions of the testator by leaving everything to the unfettered discretion of the testator since the law presumes that the instincts and sentiments of the testator may be safely trusted to secure a better disposition as compared to a distribution prescribed by the stereotyped and inflexible rules of a general law. However, there are instances where dependants of the deceased, whether deliberately or inadvertently, are not provided for in the Will of the deceased testator. This Article seeks to explore the legal claim for reasonable provision out of the Will of a deceased testator in favor of dependants of the testator. The article would identify the safeguards in the laws of Ghana which allow for dependants who are somewhat left out of the Will of a deceased testator to be catered for. The article would also consider the jurisprudence of the Superior Courts of Ghana on the legal claim for reasonable provision out of the Will of a deceased testator in favor of dependants of the testator. As a whole, it is believed that this study would go a long way to highlight the mechanisms for assessing the legal claim for reasonable provision for dependants out of the Will of a deceased testator and would further make suggestions towards strengthening the law and jurisprudence on the area of law.