JUDGMENT OF LUTTERODT J.
This action is brought by Eric Banini, an infant, per his next friend, his father Daniel Kobla Banini of the Ghana Atomic Commission, Accra.
It is yet another classic case of the plaintiff setting up, as far as the main facts leading to the claim are concerned, facts entirely different from the defendant's and one in which there is no independent or disinterested person testifying in the matter. The court is therefore faced with choosing one of the rival claims. The only common ground [p.355] between the parties is that on the night of 18 July 1983 the plaintiff who at the material time was a schoolboy aged sixteen went on to the defendant's farms to steal five cobs of corn. He was caught by the defendant, the owner of the farm, but he ended up, as far as his hands were concerned, not quite in the same shape in which they came. He ended up at the Military Hospital with the following injuries.
"1. Complete transaction of superficial and deep palm muscles and tendons especially of the proximal portions of digits II, III, IV and V of the right hand.
2. Injury to the II, III, IV, proximal phalangeal joint with fracture (avalsion) and contusion of the proximal phalanges.
3. Destruction of volur nerves and blood vessels with severe soft tissue damage.
4. Amputation of the left middle finger."
The above is the technical description of the injuries. The layman's version is as described by the victim. The defendant admits the injuries but the controversy between the parties is whether or not he inflicted same wilfully and intentionally after he had arrested and caught the plaintiff or whether as the defendant maintained he did so in self-defence and in defence of his property.
I have carefully examined the two rival stories put up by both sides and I opt for the plaintiff’s version. The defendant's own evidence clearly shows that he has suffered much at the hands of these thieves. Little wonder that he kept watch on several nights on the farm and even had to go to the extent of making his children sacrifice their school hours all in a bid to catch the thief (or thieves) who has (or have) been ravaging his farm.
Each time he failed in his bid and the thefts continued. The mood in which he kept yet another watch on the farm on this fateful day is borne out by his own following testimony:
"I decided on 18 July 1983 that we shall all break the curfew. So at 7pm I left and when going I told my wife I was going to sleep on the farm
