ENABLIS ENTERPRISE NETWORK VS TULLOW GHANA LIMITED
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE GOERGE K. KOOMSON
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Applicant sought an order to compel the Respondent to provide further and better particulars of a paragraph in the Statement of Defence and Counterclaim that alleged fraud. The court reviewed the submissions and relevant legal principles, concluding that the Respondent must particularize the allegation of fraud to comply with the High Court Civil Procedure Rules. The court granted the application and ordered the Respondent to provide the details within 10 days, allowing the Applicant to amend their reply and defence to counterclaim if needed within 7 days thereafter.
In this action the Applicant has applied to this court for an order compelling the Respondent to furnish Applicant with further and better particulars of paragraph 55 of the Statement of Defence and Counterclaim filed by the Respondent.
The Respondent resist the application for further and better particulars on the grounds that the said paragraph 55 is sufficiently detailed to inform the Applicant the basis of the allegation of fraud.
The issue I have to resolve in this application is whether or not the object of the information requested by the Applicant for further and better particulars is to obtain particulars of the facts narrated by the Respondent in its pleadings at paragraph 55 of the statement of defence and counterclaim.
I have read the application and the various affidavits filed by the parties.
I have also examined the pleadings filed by the Respondent.
I have given regard to the written submissions filed by both parties.
I have given thoughtful consideration to the principles governing applications of this nature.
Regard has also been given to the relevant provisions of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 C. I. 47. In defining the object of further and better particulars, Archer J (as he then was) in the case of SAMPA v SACKER [1964] GLR 510-513, quoted Cotton L. J. in SPEDDING v FITZPATRICK (1888) 38 Ch.
410 as stating thus: “The object of particulars is to enable the party asking for them to know what case he has to meet at the trial, and so to save unnecessary expense, and avoid allowing parties to be taken by surprise…. . The old system of pleading at Common Law was to conceal as much as possible what was going to be proved at the trial, but under the present system it is our duty to see that a party so states his case that his opponent will not be taken by surprise. ”In the latter case of WANYINARA v BASSAN [1972] 2 GLR 227, Edusei J, stated that: “The whole purpose of pleading is to set out in a summary form his claim or defence so that the opposite party is not taken by surprise at the trial.
The opposite party must come to court knowing the case he has to meet.
It is on these principles that further and better statement of particulars will be ordered by this court. ”Lartey J, summarized the object or purpose of an application for particulars, in the case of QUANSAH v OFOSU [1991] 1 GLR 151 as follows: “It is trite law that particulars of any matter stated in any pleading may be ordered by a court.
The object o