ATTRAAH v. ABOAAH
September 30, 1963
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- APALOO J
Areas of Law
- Tort Law
- Civil Procedure
September 30, 1963
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
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JUDGMENT OF APALOO J.
This is an appeal from the judgment of a circuit court which on the 11th April, 1963, dismissed a claim by the plaintiff against the defendant for damage suffered by the former as a result of the destruction by fire of the plaintiff's cocoa farm.
There is not a great deal of controversy about the facts and I state them briefly. The plaintiff and the defendant own farms contiguous to each other at a place called Witreso at Odumasi, Ashanti-Akim. The preponderance of the evidence is that both were cocoa farms. Some time in September 1961, the defendant set fire to his own farm. This fire was spread by the force of a strong wind and caused damage to the plaintiff's farm. It is agreed by the witnesses that it was exceptionally dry weather and dry winds were blowing from Agogo towards Konongo Odumase. The plaintiff accordingly claimed that the defendant was negligent in setting fire to his own farm in those circumstances and in failing to prevent its spread to her farm.
The defendant pleaded that he took all reasonable precautions to avoid the spread of the fire and accordingly claimed that the fire spread accidentally and also by "Act of God." The precaution which the defendant said he took was that he cleared the confines of his own farm before lighting the fire.
His counsel has urged in this court that that is the ordinary farming practice and beyond that the defendant need not go. The learned circuit court judge found as a fact that before setting the fire, the defendant cleared the edges of his farm. He held that to be the known and accepted farming practice. He therefore concluded "the burning of the plaintiff's farm was therefore an 'Act of God' and the defendant is not liable to the plaintiff for any damages, if any, suffered by her."
Not unnaturally, the plaintiff appeals to this court on two grounds. Firstly, it was submitted on her behalf that the judgment was unreasonable having regard to the evidence. The way in which the judgment failed to conform to reason, counsel pointed out, was that although the court wholly cleared the defendant from making reparation, he was himself offering by his letter, exhibit 1, to pay compensation for the damage.
The second ground of appeal, which counsel argued with rather more conviction, complains that the "learned circuit court judge erred in holding that the burning of the plaintiff's farm was an 'Act of God'. " Counsel referred to and relied on the definition of an "Act of God" in Win
AI Generated Summary
Apaloo J reviewed an appeal arising from a circuit court decision dismissing a claim by a cocoa farmer whose contiguous farm at Witreso, Odumasi, Ashanti-Akim was damaged by fire started by her neighbor. In September 1961, the defendant ignited his own farm amidst exceptionally dry, windy conditions blowing from Agogo toward Konongo Odumase; the fire spread and destroyed the plaintiff’s cocoa trees and food crops. The circuit court had accepted that clearing the farm edges was ordinary local practice and treated the destruction as an Act of God, absolving liability. On appeal, Apaloo J rejected the Act of God defense under the common law definition, held the defendant negligent for lighting and failing to contain the fire, emphasized the duty owed to adjoining landowners, and noted the defendant’s letter offering compensation. The court credited the plaintiff’s evidence of 300 matured cocoa trees and, adopting a ten-shilling value per tree, awarded £G150 plus £G25 for foodstuff, set aside the lower court judgment, allowed the appeal, and granted costs.