FIRST ATLANTIC BANK LIMITED v. AGYEI BAFFOUR AND SONS LTD. & OTHERS

RULING

BENIN, JSC:-

This is an application seeking an order restraining the interested parties from executing the order of the High Court pending the determination of an application for certiorari brought to the Supreme Court to quash the decision of the High Court, Commercial Division, Kumasi. The applicant recounted the facts leading up to the application for certiorari which is yet to be heard and determined by this court. The applicant herein caused to be issued from the High Court in Kumasi a writ of summons against the interested parties herein. The action could not be heard on merits because on 25th July 2014 the High Court presided over by Yartey J. dismissed the action because the writ of summons did not disclose the chamber registration number of the firm which issued the writ. The court also awarded costs of GHc4,000.00 against the applicant. The applicant has since filed an application for certiorari in this court to quash the said decisions of the High Court.

It appears the only executable order made by the High Court is the costs awarded. The applicant is complaining that the interested parties have taken steps to enforce the order for costs notwithstanding the pendency of the application for certiorari before this court. The applicant therefore applied to the High Court for an order to stay execution of the order for costs. However, the High Court dismissed the application upon a preliminary objection raised by the interested parties that as long as there was no appeal pending against the court’s decision, an application for a stay of execution could not lie.

Following the High Court’s refusal to grant the stay of execution, the applicant filed an application in this court seeking an order to restrain the interested parties herein from seeking to enforce the order for costs awarded by the High Court. This appears to be a repeat application for a stay of execution though described as an application to restrain the interested parties from enforcing the High Court’s order for costs. Whatever description is given to the application, the object sought is the same: to stay execution in respect of the order for costs.

The grounds for the application may be found in paragraphs 7 and 8 of the affidavit in support of the application. These read thus:

7. That in order not to render the success of the application for certiorari nugatory, we pray for an order for injunction directed at the interested parties to restrain them from carrying on with