CATHERINE AFEKU & ORS VS PATRICIA GICK & ORS

This High Court judgment by Her Ladyship Olivia Obeng Owusu (Mrs.) concerns a collateral civil action by Catherine Afeku, Seth Afeku, and Polymath Enterprises Limited seeking to set aside an earlier Commercial Division judgment in Suit No. RPC 245/06, where Justice Barbara Ackah-Yensu had awarded US$217,462, interest, an accounting, and recovery of a Mitsubishi Diamante to Patricia and Bill Gicks against Polymath and the Afekus. The plaintiffs alleged the prior judgment was procured by fraud, relying principally on a video (Exhibit B) purportedly showing the third defendant confessing that the evidence and claims in the prior case were fabricated, along with email exchanges (Exhibits C–H). The defendants denied fraud, invoked res judicata, and challenged the video’s authenticity. The court ordered forensic testing; the court witness found indications of modification, and playback and GBC transcription revealed no confession. The plaintiffs failed to call the journalist said to have produced the video, and could not establish when or by whom it was made or pinpoint specific confessions. Stressing that allegations of fraud and perjury in civil proceedings require proof beyond reasonable doubt under Section 13(1) of the Evidence Act, the court held the plaintiffs had not strictly proved fraud or perjury. The claim was dismissed, and costs of GHS 20,000 were awarded to the defendants.