C.I.L.E.V. v. BLACK STAR LINE LTD. AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF AMISSAH J.A.

The issue which falls to me to decide in this case is in my view of a limited nature. It is briefly whether the plaintiffs, C.I.L.E.V., as holders of four bills of lading covering consignments of goods shipped to Ghana in the defendants' boat are entitled upon presentation of the bills of lading and the proffer of payment for freight for those goods to the defendants to their release by the defendants to them. If that is so then whether the defendants in refusing to release the goods have not done wrong to the plaintiffs for which the plaintiffs are entitled to damages as well. The questions have in the course of the case been wrapped up in a mass of irrelevancies.

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Goods covered by nine sets of bills of lading shipped by Fratelli Gondrand arrived at Takoradi harbour some time in April 1967. The evidence is that Gondrand are shipping agents carrying on business in Italy and that in this particular case they shipped the goods as agents of C.I.L.E.V. The goods were carried by the defendants' ship, The Bia River. The dispute, though not the whole of it, has raged over the person to whom the goods were shipped. The case of C.I.L.E.V. is that they were then a newly formed company in Italy. Four partners, of whom the general manager of the co-defendants, Chiavelli, was the one who formed this company. At the time of the shipment Chiavelli was the plaintiffs' representative in Ghana. They therefore shipped the goods so that on arrival, Chiavelli would be notified and that he in turn would inform the partners in Italy who would come to Ghana and arrange for their sale. The proceeds of the sale, they intended to use in establishing a business in this country. At the instance of Chiavelli the address for notification of the arrival of the goods was put on the bills of lading as "Timber Import Export, P.O. Box 288,'Takoradi (Ghana)."

Upon arrival of the goods some were cleared by Chiavelli. But later on some distrust set in between Chiavelli on the one hand and at least, two of his partners, Plerini, the chairman of C.I.L.E.V. and Galassi on the other C.I.L.E.V. relieved Chiavelli of his representation in Ghana. They tried subsequently to obtain release of the remaining goods but they were met by the defendants saying that the co-defendants, who to the defendants were the consignees, owed the defendants arrears of freight of N¢132,762.06. That the defendants had therefore placed a lien on the goods not yet released. To obtain the