GH - COMPTROLLER OF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE v. NARTEY AND OTHERS

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the District Court, Grade I, Tema, delivered on 6 February 1970, in an action brought by the Comptroller of Customs and Excise.

The facts are that on 7 June 1969, at about 1.00 a.m. police officers, who were on patrol duty at a village called Lashibi near Ashiamang, came across a lot of goods suspected to be contraband. The goods, according to the police, consisted of cartons of cigarettes, matches and drinkables. At the time the police arrived at the spot where the said goods were, apart from the five taxi-cabs involved in this case, there were about fifteen other vehicles. But these fifteen other vehicles started off and drove away before the police had any chance to make any arrest. The respondents who were the drivers of the five taxi-cabs, also abandoned their taxi-cabs and escaped. The taxi-cabs and all the goods were sent to the Police Station at Tema and the respondents were later arrested. Proceedings were brought against the respondents by the Comptroller of Customs and Excise under section 197 (d) and (e) of the Customs Ordinance, Cap. 167 (1951 Rev.), claiming from the respondents sums of money being a penalty of treble the value of the uncustomed goods so seized.

The taxi-cabs did not belong to the respondents but they belonged to other persons who were, in the course of the proceedings, joined as co-defendants on their own application. It could be seen therefore that the drivers, that is the respondents, were mere employees or servants of those co-defendants. It appears from the affidavits filed by the co-defendants that the co-defendants joined the suit in order to defend their interest so far as the vehicles were concerned as they realised that in case judgment was against the respondents, those vehicles were likely to be confiscated.

[p.356]

The case for the respondents, briefly, was that on the day in question, they parked their vehicles at their usual taxi rank near the lorry park in Tema, waiting for customers. At about 7.30 p.m. a customer approached them and informed them that his vehicles carrying his goods had broken down at a place near Lashibi village, Ashiamang, and that he wanted to hire the taxi-cabs to go and cart those goods from the broken down vehicles. The respondents agreed and the customer hired their taxi-cabs. The respondents drove with the said customer to a spot near Lashibi village where they in fact saw about fifteen vehicles. When they got to the s

JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the District Court, Grade I, Tema, delivered on 6 February 1970, in an action brought by the Comptroller of Customs and Excise.

[p.356]

COMPTROLLER OF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE v. NARTEY AND OTHERS

Areas of Law

JUDGMENT