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April 6, 1939
WEST AFRICAN COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
The following joint judgment was delivered :-
WEBB, C.]., SIERRA LEONE, BUTLER LLOYD, AG.C.J., NIGERIA AND STROTHER-STEWART, J.
The plaintiff's claim in this action was for "Specific performance of an agreement entered into between the plaintiff and the defendants on the 17th July, 1937, whereby the defendants agreed to lease the premises known as Lucetta House in Selwyn Market Street, Accra, to the plaintiff for a period of twenty years at a rental of £200 a year." There were also claims for a declaration that any subsequent ·lease or agreement between the defendant Cole and the defendants, Messrs. Bardawil & Co., is void as against the plaintiff, and, in the alternative, for damages. It is plain that the indorsement on the writ is most carelessly drawn in speaking of an agreement between the plaintiff and the defendants, because it was never suggested at any stage of the proceedings that there had been any agreement other than one between the plaintiff and the defendant Cole.
The learned Chief Justice dismissed the action on the ground that" there was no concluded agreement on the 17th July," (though it is obvious that he considered that there was a contract made upon some later date), and he came to this conclusion because he considered that" there was a very substantial variation between " the terms of the plaintiff's written offer of the 17th July and the first defendant's written reply thereto."
With great respect I cannot agree with the view of the nature and effect of these two letters. The plaintiff's letter begins: " confirming our verbal conversation this morning I agree to lease from you the land, etc., subject to the following conditions ..... ", and the defendant's letter begins: "I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 17th instant which contains the substance of the verbal agreement mutually agreed upon in respect of the proposed leasing of my property .... the details of which are as follows .... ". In my judgment it is impossible to regard these letters as an offer and a counter-offer, which the plaintiff accepted later by having a draft lease prepared and submitted to the defendant Cole. On the contrary the letters seem to me to make it very plain that there was already, as the defendant Cole puts it, " a verbal agreement mutually agreed upon," the terms of which the parties say they are now "confirming." Nor, indeed, can I see any material difference between the" conditions" given in the one letter and the "details" in the other. T
AI Generated Summary
A joint appellate judgment by Webb, C.J., Butler Lloyd, Ag.C.J., and Strother-Stewart, J., reviews a lease dispute over Lucetta House on Selwyn Market Street, Accra. The plaintiff sought specific performance of a 17 July 1937 agreement to lease the premises for twenty years at per year with three years rent in advance. The court read the parties 17 July letters as confirming an already concluded verbal agreement and found no material difference between the plaintiffs conditions and Coles details, including equivalent language making payment due upon execution. Rejecting the trial courts view, the appellate bench held time was not of the essence and the plaintiffs short delay in tendering 600 did not constitute abandonment. Because Messrs. Bardawil & Co., who later obtained a lease, lacked notice of the plaintiffs contract, the court denied specific performance, instead remitting the case for assessment of damages against Cole. The appeal was allowed, the lower judgment reversed, and costs were awarded to the plaintiff below and on appeal.