CHAHIN & SONS v. EPOPE PRINTING PRESS

JUDGMENT OF BLAY J.S.C.

The appellants in this appeal were sued by the respondents herein in the High Court, Accra, for the sum of £G4,507 10s. being damages suffered as a result of wrongful ejectment from one of the rooms of house No. D.631/2, Horse Road, Accra.

The case for the respondents in the court below may be thus briefly stated. On the 30th May, 1959, they, the respondents, leased one room of house No. D.631/2, Horse Road, Accra, from the Heal Press, Ltd., who it appears were tenants of the whole house, and the rent agreed upon for the one room was £G13 per month. They subsequently installed and fixed in that room heavy and delicate printing machines and carried on the business of printers therein, until the 13th May, 1961, when the appellants went into the room together with a bailiff of the High Court and a number of labourers and started to remove and did remove all the machines and other accessories of the respondents from the said room, which they eventually placed on the pavement in front of the house. They, the respondents, claimed that as sub-tenants of the Heal Press, Ltd. of the one room of the house which they occupied, they were lawfully in possession and therefore protected by the provisions of the Rent Control Ordinance, 1952,1 from ejectment without an order of court. They contended that their ejectment by the appellants from the room was unlawful [p.166] hence the claim for damages as already stated. Particulars of the damages claimed were given as follows:

£G s. d.

(a) General damage .. .. .. .. .. 2,000 0 0

(b) Damage to cutting machines .. .. .. 250 0 0

(c) Damage to 150 type cases .. .. .. .. 1,570 0 0

(d) Damage to 25 automatic numbering machines .. 187 10 0

(e) Printing papers and other materials .. .. .. 500 0 0

Total .. .. £G4,507 10 0

The appellants' case was that they as owners of house No. D.631/2, Horse Road, Accra, had leased the whole house to Heal Press, Ltd. and that on the 23rd April, 1958, they commenced an action, suit No. L.57/58 against the Heal Press, Ltd., for recovery of possession of the said house and had obtained judgment for possession and mesne profits for £G100, on the 31st October, 1958. In pursuance of that judgment they had been put in possession of the whole house by the sheriff of the High Court on the 1st December, 1958. Subsequently the Heal Press, Ltd. took action against them, the appellants, to set aside the said judgment of October 958, on the ground of fraud and on the 1st April