2024
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Plaintiff/Appellant filed a claim for GH₵ 75,463.81, interest, costs, and damages from the Defendant/Respondent in High Court, but the suit was dismissed on procedural grounds. On appeal, the appellate court evaluated the evidence and legal arguments, determining the trial court erred in dismissing the suit for procedural reasons. The appellate court held that the Plaintiff/Appellant was not entitled to most of the reliefs claimed but was entitled to interest on an admitted sum. Legal principles from the case included the requirement to file a writ of summons with a statement of claim, the curing of defects in writs by statements of claim, and the entitlement to payment for services rendered even if not stipulated in a formal contract. The appellate court set aside the trial court's judgment and awarded the Respondent costs of GH₵ 10,000.00.
Ackaah-Boafo, JA
i. Overview:
[1] My Lords, I wish to preface this judgment with the statement by the former President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Aharon Barak which is that;
' Every meaning that an interpreter gives a legal text must have an Archimedean foothold in the language of the text. True, the interpreter is not a linguist. But linguistics sets the boundaries of legal interpretation. An interpreter may not give a text a meaning that a linguist could not give it. Justice Frankfurter said as much, noting that 'while courts are no longer confined to the language, they are still
confined by it ' 1 .
I shall later speak to the quote above in considering the merits or otherwise of this appeal.
[2] This is an appeal arising from a case the Plaintiff/Appellant (the Plaintiff) filed in the High Court, Commercial Division, Cape Coast on December 2, 2020 and claimed for recovery of a total amount of GH ₵ 75,463.81, award of interest, cost, and damages. The trial court after a full-blown trial struck out the suit on procedural grounds. My Lords, the matter has now come to this court as an appeal from the dismissal of the action by the High Court. The primary question for resolution on this appeal is whether the learned trial judge erred in dismissing the suit and as contended by the Appellant, whether the judgment is against the weight of evidence.
[3] Dissatisfied with the judgment dated and delivered on 2nd December, 2021, the Plaintiff/Appellant has launched this appeal and the relief sought from this court is an order to set aside the judgment of the trial judge. In this judgment, the designation of the parties as Plaintiff and Defendant shall be maintained and where appropriate referred to as Appellant and Respondent. Before dealing with the arguments advanced in support and against the appeal, I will give a brief background of the case.
ii. Background :
[4] The Appellant averred that sometime in ' December 2017 it won a contract for Supply and Installation of ICT Equipment and Renovation of Computer Laboratory for the College of Distance Education (CODE) at a contract price of GH ₵ 241, 370.20'. The Appellant further averred that upon moving to the site, a meeting was held with officers of the Defendant University who directed it to undertake additional works which then
1 In his book 'Purposive Interpretation in Law' (P.U.P., U.S.A, 2005 ) at page 19.
changed the contract price. The Appellant listed the additional works it had to u