ADJEI TETTEH ADJIETEH vs THELMA ADZORKOR ADDY & ORS

By a motion on notice for joinder filed on 14th April 2023, the Applicants supplicate this Honourable Court to join KINGSLEY COFFIE NETTEY, JACOB OFFEI OKRAKU and JOHN OKOE BARNOR to this suit as 9th, 10th and 11th Defendants respectively. Counsel for the Applicants moved the application in terms of the motion paper, the supporting affidavit and the annexure.

In stating the case for the Applicants, Counsel submits that, on 8th June, 2019, the Adjei Sana Family met and appointed the 1st Applicant as the Head of Family to oversee all matters relating to the Nii Adjei Sana Family in Lona and Adjeiman including all lands and properties of the said Family. Attached to the affidavit in support of the Joinder application as Exhibit JO1 is a Gazette notification of the 1st Applicant’s appointment as Head of the Nii Adjei Sana Family.

The Rules of Court relative to applications for Joinder are very explicit and admit of no ambiguity whatsoever. Order 4 Rule 5(2)(b) of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47) provides:

“5. (2) At any stage of proceedings the Court may on such terms as it thinks just either of its own motion or on application

(b) order any person who ought to have been joined as a party or whose presence before the Court is necessary to ensure that all matters in dispute in the proceedings are effectively and completely determined and adjudicated upon to be added as a party.”

Therefore, the Court has power, after a suit has been filed, to join any person who ought to have sued or to have been sued in the first instance or to join any person whose presence is necessary or required to ensure that the entire dispute is “effectively and completely determined and adjudicated upon”.

Consequently, with applications for Joinder, if and only if, a person’s presence before the Court is necessary to ensure that a dispute is effectively and completely determined and adjudicated upon, that person may be added as a party. This position of the law is supported by legal authorities including:

· Coleman v Shang [1959] GLR 390 C/A;

· Ussher v Darko [1977] 1 GLR 476 C/A and

· Howden v Yorkshire Miners’ Association [1903] 1 KB 308

It is therefore my respectful view, from the totality of the evidence before this Court and the submissions of Counsel for the Applicants, that the instant application for joinder has merit; more so, as there is no affidavit in opposition to the application. This court is therefore minded to join the Applicants to