EXCEL OIL COMPANY LIMITED v. EASTERN ALLOYS CO. LTD.

KANYOKE, J. A. :

In this judgment the Plaintiff/Respondent will be referred to simply as the plaintiff and the Defendant/ Appellant as the defendant respectively.

The appeal is against the ruing of the Commercial Division of the High Court, Accra, dated 29th July, 2010 wherein the trial v judge had adopted the values of two track-s that had been attached in execution of a consent judgment in favour of the plaintiff and which trucks were valued by Inter City Couches Ltd. The two attached trucks are a Mercedes Benz Truck with registration number GE 6322 W and a Mack Jack 5 ton Truck with registration number GE 7331 X owned by 1 ~ , the defendant, Inter City Couches Ltd. valued the Mercedes Benz Track at Gh¢46, 200. 00 whilst the Mack Jack 5 ton Truck was valued at Gh¢5, 600. 00. The defendant found these values of the trucks unacceptable so the court granted it leave to file an alternative valuation report from the local authorized dealers of the vehicles.

The two trucks were therefore at the instance of the defendant valued by Silver Star Auto Ltd. and Caitec Delta Motors Ltd. respectively Silver Star Auto Ltd. valued the Mercedes Benz Truck at Euros 111, 261. 00 whilst Caitec Delta Motors Ltd. valued the Mack Jack 5 ton truck at US$12, 142. 00. On the 12th May, 2008 the court presided over by an Appeal Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge inferentially rejected the values of the trucks as set by Inter City Couches. Ltd. and accordingly made an order for reserved price based on the Valuation Reports from Silver Star Auto Ltd. and Caitec Delta Motors Ltd. Despite several advertisements put out for the sale of the trucks by the auctioneer no interested bidder came forward.

Meanwhile, the auctioneer had reported to the Registrar of the court that a certain person had offered to buy the Mercedes Benz truck for Gh¢ 100, 000: 00 and the Mack Jack 5 ton truck for Gh¢6, 000. 00. The Registrar conveyed this information to the parties whereupon counsel for the plaintiff applied by motion on notice on 9th September, 2008 for variation of the reserved price to be fixed at the prices or values offered by the interested bidder.

The court, presided over by Amadu Tanko J. (as he then was), granted the application in a ruling dated 27-10-2008 for variation but rather fixed the reserved prices as follows: 940, 000 j Euros or its cedi equivalent for the Mercedes Benz truck and US$10, 000. 00 or its cedi equivalent for the Mack Jack 5 ton truck.

After s