Bride price case dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction

By JAMES GUMUNO
UPPER courts such as the district, national, and supreme courts have no jurisdiction to deal with customary matters, a magistrate said yesterday.
Mt Hagen District Court magistrate Lydia Karre pointed that out after dismissing an appeal case from the Gomis village court about customary bride price.
Karre said that village court was the right place to resolve any customary problems.
She said the district court tried to ensure that village court magistrates didn’t make an error when handing down their decisions.
Magistrate Karre upheld the decision of the Gomis village court and ordered the appellant, Nicholas Tomitom, pay for the cost of the food which his former wife and her family members prepared and gave to him in order that he paid bride price later.
Tomitom, from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville who initially got married to Daian Daniel, from Western Highlands, refused to pay K1000 for the food and appealed the decision in the district court.
He said that no food was prepared by Daniel but three chickens were cooked and all the family members shared the food together.
Tomitom said Daniel’s people didn’t kill 15 chickens or bought two cartons of coke or prepared food from the garden for him as claimed by his former wife.
Karre said whether it was plenty of food or little prepared by the Daniel’s people, they were following customary procedures.