AKOSUA KONADU AND ADJOA KONAMA v. KWASI ABOAGYE (successor to late KOFI BANING)

On appeal before Smith, AG. C.J., the appellant contended that both the trial and judgment of the Native Court of first instance were nullities because the court’s composition changed mid-hearing. The court record notes that, with the consent of the parties and the court, Stephen Ahyia left the panel and E. A. Konan, who had been present throughout the hearings, was substituted, and the record was re-read. Surveying West African Court of Appeal decisions (including Florence Plange v. Korkoi Mota and Chief Yaw Damoah v. Chief Kofi Taibil) alongside English authorities (Colehill v. Manchester Corporation, R. v. Jeffreys, ex parte Bottomley, and In re British Reinforced Concrete Engineering Co. Ltd.), Smith, AG. C.J. held that the reading of prior evidence to a reconstituted civil tribunal is an irregularity, not a jurisdictional defect, and may be waived by consent. He distinguished local precedents because the substituting member, E. A. Konan, had been present throughout, and dismissed the appellant’s nullity ground.