JUDGMENT OF AZU CRABBE J.S.C
Azu Crabbe J.S.C. delivered the ruling of the court. This is an application brought under rule 33 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1962 (L.I. 218), for an order for review of the Supreme Court's decision in the above case dated 20 February 1963. Rule 33 reads as follows: [His lordship here read the rule as set out in the headnote and continued:]
This matter has had a chequered career in the courts, and for more than eight years it has deliberately been kept alive by a series of motions; until a stage is reached where legal ingenuity itself becomes exhausted.
The background of this application is as follows: On 24 May 1961, the late Adumua-Bossman J. (as he then was) gave judgment against the applicant in the High Court, Accra, in an action instituted by the respondent in this application. The applicant appealed to the former Supreme Court on a number of grounds, and the respondent also cross-appealed. On the date fixed for the hearing of the appeal, neither the applicant nor his counsel appeared in court, and the appeal was dismissed with costs for non-prosecution. The respondent's cross-appeal was also dismissed on 20 February 1963, after argument.
On 4 April 1963, an application for an order "to restore the cross-appeal herein which was dismissed on 20th day of February, 1963" was filed on behalf of the applicant by the late Mr. C. F. Hayfron-Benjamin. This was clearly a wrong application, and on 3 April 1967, it was withdrawn and was dismissed with costs by the Court of Appeal, which had then succeeded the former Supreme Court.
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On 8 May 1967, a fresh application was filed under rule 33 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1962 (L.I. 218), by Mr. B. J. da Rocha on behalf of the applicant for "an order to relist" the appeal which was struck out for non-prosecution.
It seems no action was taken in that application for nearly three years. On 14 April 1970, the respondent (judgment creditor) filed an application in this court for leave to go into execution in respect of the judgment of 20 February 1963, and for an order that the present applicant (judgment debtor) should pay interest at the rate of ten per cent. on the judgment debt from the date of judgment. This application was fixed for hearing on 11 May 1970. With regard to the applicant's application the court made an order as follows:
"We are not satisfied that the applicant has been entirely frank in his reason for not being present during the hearing of the original a
