GOLDEN GRACE LIMITED v. TAKORADI FLOUR MILLS LIMITED

J U D G M E N T

ARYEETEY, JSC

The plaintiff company was a registered distributor of flour supplied by the defendant company and it surrendered additional documents to the defendant company, pursuant to a supposed mortgage transaction they entered into, so as to secure payment for the increase in the supply of flour to the plaintiff company.

However, the defendant company did not supply additional quantities of flour to the plaintiff as presumably envisaged because the plaintiff was already indebted to the defendant. When the plaintiff company demanded the demanded the return of its documents the defendant refused to do so. Therefore, for his remedy, as per his amended writ of summons, the plaintiff sued the defendant for following reliefs:

a) The return of the following documents unlawfully detained by the defendant.

i) Document No.B3289 registered as document No. 89/43 relating to House Number 327/1 Ashanti Road, Cape Coast, executed between E.C Wryter and Elizabeth Derby and her children.

ii) Uncompleted House No. GHWA4 on Plot No.3 documented as CR 71/95 and stamped as LVB/CR/1331A/95 in the name of Bontena Ltd Green Hill, Cape Coast.

iii) Document No. 70A/95 stamped as LVB/1330-1330A/95/ Plot No. 12 A situated at Green Hill Cape Coast in the name of Bontena Ltd.

iv) Document No. CCT682/83 stamped as LVB/CR/633A-633A/94 on Plot Nos. 96, 97, 98, 99, and 1090 at Elwn.

b) Damages for unlawful detention of the documents of the Plaintiff mentioned supra, to be determined or calculated as at the date of judgment.

The defendant pleaded and gave evidence that it had surrendered the documents to the plaintiff when it obtained judgment for the recovery of the debt owed it by the plaintiff.

The substance of the present suit at the High Court was the recovery of one of the documents surrendered to the defendant but which was not returned to the plaintiff company when the defendant returned the others to it, namely the original of document, No. G27/1, Ashanti Road, Cape Coast. In actual fact the defendant company did return a certified true copy of that document to the plaintiff company and not the original one. At the end of a trial, the High Court, Sekondi, presided over by His Lordship Mr. Justice Anthony Oppong, entered judgment in favour of the defendant company, in a well reasoned judgment.

The plaintiff was dissatisfied with the judgment and appealed to the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the judgment of the High Court and dismissed the appeal bef