CHARLOTTE AGYEMAN-BUDU VS 21ST CENTURY CONSTRUCTION
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE GEORGE BUADI J.
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involved an application for stay of execution of a judgment pending appeal. The key issues revolved around whether the appeal was filed within the statutory period and the relevance of the plaintiff's non-residency. The notice of appeal was filed outside the prescribed period, and no extension was sought. Consequently, the court found no valid appeal was pending and dismissed the application for stay of execution.
This is an application for stay of execution of judgment this court1 delivered on 19 June 2015 pending determination of the appeal.
I deemed it prudent to hold on to my ruling on the matter after both lawyers have concluded their submissions due to what appears to be issues lawyer for plaintiff/judgment creditor, the respondent herein sought to raise in his concluding submissions, tersely though.
Counsel seemed to raise doubts that the appeal was filed within the statutory three months period under Rule 9 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 1997 (C. I. 19). What the court delivered on Friday 19 June 2015 was a final judgement between the parties.
By or under Rule 9(1) b of C. I. 19, the vanquished party , thus had three months to file notice of its appeal “in the registry of the Court below”, that is, the trial court.
Rules 8(2) and 9(3). I have observed that the applicant filed the notice of appeal in the registry not of the ‘court below’ but registry of the Court of Appeal.
In accordance with section 44(9)c of the Interpretation Act, 2009 (Act 792), a reference to a month is to be construed as a reference to a calendar month.
By my reckoning therefore the notice of appeal should have been filed on 19th, or perhaps 20th September and not on 22 September 2015. Whatever might be the accurate reckoning, clearly the notice of appeal was just about two or three days outside the three months statutory period for appeals to the Court of Appeal.
I must add however that Rule 9(4) provides for further three months extension of time within which to appeal after the expiration of the statutory three months prescribed.
So after 19th or 20th September up to about 19th or 20th December 2015 thereabout, the applicant had the opportunity to apply to this court for extension of time within which to file his notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal.
This opportunity, the applicant failed to grab.
Whilst I set out to consider the application, it is obvious to state that there is presently no appeal pending before the Court of Appeal, and thus submissions and consideration of the application based on consideration of the success of appeal being likely to be rendered nugatory is presently irrelevant, indeed non-existent.
The submission of applicant appears to me to be grounded basically on the fact that the plaintiff is nonresident, and thus apprehensive of their difficulty in recovering fruits of their labor if their appeal succeeds at the Court of Appeal.
Indeed, as con