ARLA FOODS LIMITED vs RICHARD OPPONG PEPRAH

Plaintiff claims against Defendant the following reliefs:

1. An order for the Defendant to pay the sum of Three Hundred and Eighteen Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Ghana Cedis, Seventeen Pesewas (GH¢318,430.17) to the Plaintiff being the outstanding debt owed by the Defendant to the Plaintiff as at 30th October, 2020.

2. Interest on the above sum of Three Hundred and Eighteen Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Ghana Cedis, Seventeen Pesewas (GH¢318,430.17) at the GCB Bank prevailing interest rate for lending from 31st October 2020 to the date of final payment.

3. Costs occasioned by this suit including Lawyer’s fees.

4. Other just and equitable reliefs.

PLAINTIFF’S CASE

Plaintiff’s case as stated in the Statement of Claim and Reply to the Statement of Defence and Defence to Counterclaim is that it entered into an Agreement with Defendant for the supply of dairy products in or about the year 2016 on credit basis.

Under the terms of the said Agreement, Plaintiff was to supply the said products and issue invoices to Defendant, who would in turn pay for the goods supplied before the expiration of the agreed timeframe for payment.

According to Plaintiff, between the years 2016 and 2020, it supplied the said products as agreed to Defendant and issued invoices but Defendant failed to settle the invoices issued to him.

That Plaintiff agreed to Defendant’s request for a reconciliation of accounts due to Defendant’s allegations of shortages in the goods supplied to him to enable him settle his outstanding invoices.

That following the conduct of the said reconciliation exercise, both parties agreed that Defendant owed Plaintiff an amount of Three Hundred and Eighteen Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Ghana Cedis, Seventeen Pesewas (GH¢318,430.17) and Defendant made an oral commitment to pay the amount of Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢5,000.00) monthly towards settling his indebtedness but has failed to do so till date.

DEFENDANT’S CASE

Defendant’s case as set out in the Statement of Defence and Counterclaim is that he dutifully paid for all goods supplied him by Plaintiff and disputed the amount Plaintiff was claiming from him.

That under the guise of stock taking of Defendant’s goods in his warehouse, Plaintiff took away quantities of his stock valued at over Three Hundred and Six-One Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty-Five Ghana Cedis (GH¢361,355.00) without notice to him, thereby breaching the Agreement between them. Defendant states that it is r