2019
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
In the Ghana Court of Appeal, Justice Margaret Welbourne (JA) authored the judgment affirming the High Court, Sunyani’s dismissal of an application for certiorari and prohibition brought by Kofi Akwada and Afreh Augustine. The Interested Parties, principal members of the Gyaasehene Stool/Family of the Nkomi Traditional Area, had sought ex parte intervention from the Kwame Danso District Court to prevent disturbance of a funeral and a breach of the peace in Kajaji. The District Magistrate, noting no Abusuapanin or Gyaasehene had been installed, ordered Akwada and Augustine to refrain from holding themselves out as such and required bonds of GH₵5,000 with surety for one month. On appeal, the Court held the ex parte process did not breach natural justice, the District Court’s jurisdiction was properly invoked under Act 30, the matter did not affect chieftaincy, and the bond conditions and costs were reasonable.
WELBOURNE, JA
This is an appeal against the decision or ruling of the High Court, Sunyani, dated the 4th day of June, 2017.
THE GROUNDS OF APPEAL as found on pages 73 to 74 of the ROA are as follows:
a. The entire ruling of the learned trial judge was much against the weight of documentary evidence or much against the weight of the exhibits and affidavits filed by the Applicants/Appellants.
b. The learned trial judge sadly failed to consider critically the legal effect of the exhibits “A”-“C” tendered by the Applicants/Appellants and which such error resulted in substantial miscarriage of justice to the Applicants/Appellants.
c. The cost awarded against the Applicants/Appellants was excessive.
d. Additional grounds of appeal shall be filed upon the receipt of the Records of Appeal.
No further ground of appeal was filed as per the ROA and the Written Submissions of both Parties. There are therefore three (3) grounds of appeal to be dealt with by this Court and due to the unique nature of this case, we shall deal with the grounds of the appeal in seriatim.
In this appeal, the Applicants/Appellants are hereinafter referred to as the Appellants while the Respondents/Respondents are hereinafter referred to as the Respondents and the Interested Parties are hereinafter referred to as the Interested Parties. The record of appeal is hereinafter referred to as ROA. The order of the District Court which triggered this appeal is found at page 23 of the ROA. The Ruling of the High Court, Sunyani spanned from pages of 65 to 71 of the ROA. The Notice of Appeal is found at pages 73 to 74 of the ROA.
The Background
The facts of the case according to the interested parties are that, they (the interested parties) are the principal members of the Gyaasehene Stool/Family of Nkomi Traditional Area. Following the death of Opanin Kwame Mensah, the then Abusuapanin of the Gyaasehene Stool/Family a funeral was to be organized and celebrated in accordance with the custom and practices of the people of Nkomi Traditional Area.
The 1st Appellant who is not the Abusuapanin and the 2nd Applicant were hindering the peaceful celebration of the funeral by their conduct that had the potential of breaching the peace. At all times material no Gyaasehene had been nominated, selected and installed.
On 22nd of March 2017, the interested parties informed the District Magistrate of Kwame Danso on oath by an application supported by an affidavit that the Appellants were about to undertak