AZAR CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED v. KWARTENG AMANING

JUDGMENT

The Plaintiff’s action is for the recovery of the sum of GH¢44,483.62 being the outstanding balance of various products supplied to the Defendant since 15/07/2012. The Defendant denied the quantum of his indebtedness to the Plaintiff and after settlement had broken down, two issues were set down for trial, namely,

1. Whether or not the Defendant owes the Plaintiff the sum of GH¢44,483.62?

2. Whether or not the Plaintiff is entitled to interest on the said amount?

At the trial, evidence was adduced on behalf of the Plaintiff by its debt recovery officer by name Solomon Yacham. His testimony was straight to the point. He told the court that the Plaintiff had been supplying the Defendant with Azar paint products on a one month credit basis, calculated from the date of supply. Between February, 2012 and September, 2012, the Defendant failed to pay for products supplied to him.

In support of its case, the Plaintiff’s representative tendered in evidence invoices and a ledger account as exhibits A, A1 to A6, B and B1. Relying on exhibits B and B1, he gave the outstanding balances in respect of Azar Shield and other Azar products as GH¢39, 820.04 and GH ¢5,018.39 respectively. He stated that it is the sum of these figures which resulted in the amount endorsed on the writ of summons.

In cross-examination, counsel for the Defendant challenged the Plaintiff’s evidence that the credit sales was for one month only. The Defendant repeated this in his evidence-in chief. He tendered various invoices (exhibit 1 series) to buttress his point. He admitted in his evidence that before the Plaintiff stopped supplying him with products, his indebtedness exceeded GH¢50,000.00 and, because he was making payments, it had reduced at the time the Plaintiff instituted this action. After the commencement of this action, the Defendant said he has made payments totaling GH¢22,593.00. In support of these payments, he tendered cash deposit slips (exhibit 3 series) and a statement of account indicating the clearing of a Unibank cheque numbered 000217 on account number 09 70190 672618 which had been issued in favour of the Plaintiff.

Under cross-examination, the Defendant admitted that at the time the Plaintiff instituted this action, his indebtedness stood at GH¢ 44,483.62. The payments totaling GH¢22,593.00 was not challenged by the plaintiff in cross-examination. Thus, the Plaintiff is deemed to have admitted those payments.

The above admissions have simplified my task