BIRCH v. ASEMPA AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF ACQUAH J.

The plaintiff is the sister of one Francis Kudzo Adekpuitor, (hereinafter referred to as Adekpuitor) currently residing in the United States of America. The defendants are the personal representatives of one Seth Awumah, deceased, who in his lifetime was alleged to have manufactured and offered for sale, a number of cement blocks which are the subject matter of this suit.

The case of the plaintiff is that Adekpuitor and herself bought 7,000 six inches cement blocks from this Seth Awumah on 9 December 1981. A receipt was issued to evidence the sale. After the sale they collected in bits 2,640 out of them, leaving 4,360 blocks at the premises of Seth Awumah. After the death of Seth Awumah, which death occurred in 1984, she went for the remaining 4,360 blocks, but the blocks were nowhere to be found. She and her mother therefore called on the head and other members of Seth Awumah's family to demand the return of the blocks, but the family refused. Hence she instituted this action on behalf [p.423] of herself and Adekpuitor:

"against the defendants jointly and severally as administrators of the estate of the late Seth Awumah:

(1) for the return to her of 4,360 6" blocks being the balance of 7,000 blocks which the plaintiff and her brother, Kudzo Adekpuitor, purchased and paid for from Seth Awumah now deceased in 1981 or the current value.

(2) damages."

The plaintiff's only witness, the first plaintiff witness was not present at the purchase of the cement blocks, nor present at any of the periods when parts of the blocks were conveyed from Seth Awumah's premises. However, she testified that Adekpuitor and the plaintiff informed her that they had gone to buy the blocks. She was also with the plaintiff when the latter called on the head of the family to demand the return of the blocks.

The defendants' case was presented by the first defendant alone. He testified that he heard of the sale transaction for the first time when the plaintiff and her mother, the first plaintiff witness, called on the family to demand a return of the blocks. He was present at that meeting. He said that the family had doubts about the plaintiff's demand and so they demanded the purchase receipt and examined it. But they found nothing on the receipt to substantiate her claim that 4,360 of the 7,000 blocks bought were left at the premises of Seth Awumah. Notwithstanding this doubt, he, the first defendant, proposed at that meeting that the family offer ¢26,00