AGBEMASHIOR AND OTHERS v. STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION AND OTHER

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

This is an action brought against the claims manager of an insurance company, a lawyer in private practice and a registered claims agent. They were sued jointly and severally and the endorsement on the writ of summons reads as follows:

"The plaintiffs' claim is for a total amount of N¢3,900.00 (three thousand nine hundred new cedis) jointly and severally made against the three defendants, following a motor accident on 17 July 1967, which caused plaintiffs injuries for which the first defendant as insurance agent allegedly paid N¢3,900.00 compensation to the second defendant for onward payment to the plaintiffs. The second defendant alleges having paid to the third defendant N¢3,800.00 for onward payment to the plaintiffs, but the said payment has not been effected or at all despite repeated demands on the defendants by the plaintiffs."

The first plaintiff gave evidence for himself and on behalf of the other two plaintiffs. He stated that on 17 July 1967, he and the other two plaintiffs were involved in a motor accident on Asamankese-Mepom motor road and they sustained physical injuries. They were sent to the hospital at Nsawam. On their discharge, the third defendant, a registered claims agent stationed at Koforidua, contacted the first plaintiff and offered to make, on his behalf, a claim for compensation for the injuries against the insurance company of the defaulting driver. The first plaintiff then got in touch with the second and third plaintiffs and informed them about the offer of the third defendant. Eventually, all the three plaintiffs accepted the offer of the third defendant and agreed that the third defendant should make the said claims for them.

In pursuing the claims, the third defendant engaged the services of the second defendant, a legal practitioner in Accra. For some time the plaintiffs never heard about the fate of their claims and in 1968, they checked up from the first defendant, the claims manager of the State Insurance Corporation. To their surprise, they discovered that the necessary compensation due to them had already been paid to the second defendant. According to the first plaintiff, this payment to the second defendant was confirmed by a publication which subsequently appeared in Ghana Gazette No. 88 of 29 October 1968. The Gazette notice showed that the amount paid by the State Insurance Corporation to the second [p.68] defendant for and on behalf of the plaintiffs was N¢3,900.00. With this informat