Try asking the following...
Try asking the following...
November 30, 2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
JUDGMENT
On 6th November 2013, the Plaintiff caused a writ of summons to be issued out of the
Registry of this court claiming against the Defendant, the following reliefs:
a) Payment of the sum of €25,000.00 or its Ghana Cedi equivalent being the total cost advanced to the Defendant in respect of the said plastering works on the two-three storey buildings
b) Interest on (a) at the prevailing commercial rate with effect from August 10, 2011.
c) Costs
d) Any other relief that the Honourable Court may deem fit.
It was the Plaintiff’s case as set forth in his Statement of Claim that he was a resident of Germany and the owner of two three storey buildings in Accra. He had entered into an oral contract with the Defendant, an ex policeman and contractor to have these buildings plastered
According to the Plaintiff, the Defendant presented him with an estimated cost of €25,000.00. He then transferred an initial amount of €1,500.00 and later transferred the outstanding balance to the Defendant. The Defendant had failed to carry out his obligations.
The Defendant stated in his defence that the Plaintiff contracted him to work not on three two storey buildings but on three, three storey buildings. The Defendant said the parties entered into an oral contract in which they agreed that as his contract fee, the Plaintiff was to purchase for him a brand new Nissan Navara pick up/ They further agreed that while Plairtiff was to provide all the building material, the Defendant was to provide for and pay all the workers on site. The Defendant stated that he carried out his part of the bargain by putting up the three-three storey building and roofing them. The contract fee for this venture was pegged at €25.000.00
He stated that the Plaintiff only transferred the sum total of €2.500.00 and instructed the Defendant to purchase land at Adenta with the money. He said the Plaintiff had however failed to pay his contract fee in spite of the fact that he had made many demands for it. He said he tracvelled to Germany to demand for his money and the Plaintiff only gave him €200.
In view of this, the Defendant made a counterclaim against the Plaintiff for the following reliefs:
1. Recovery of an amount of GH¢70,000.00 being the Defendant’s contract fee for building the three-three storey buildings at Atomic Accra, and a three storey building in Sunyani.
2. Interest at the prevailing commercial bank rate on the GH¢70,000.00 from October 2008 till date of final payment.
3
AI Generated Summary
This High Court judgment concerns an oral building-plastering agreement between a Germany-resident property owner and a Ghana Police Service Estates Unit policeman acting as a contractor. The Plaintiff produced an email dated March 1, 2011 (Exhibit A) containing a plastering estimate and materials list, and documented transfers via Moneygram and receipts (Exhibits B1–B6) totalling over €25,000 and GH¢9,200. The Defendant alleged he constructed three three-storey buildings in Accra and another in Sunyani, claimed a GH¢70,000 fee and a Nissan Navara pick-up, but abandoned the trial after the Plaintiff closed his case. Applying the Evidence Act’s burden-shifting and preponderance standard, and distinguishing inference from conjecture, the Court found the contract’s subject was plastering, the Plaintiff paid €25,000, and the Defendant failed to perform. The Court entered judgment for the Plaintiff, ordering payment of €25,000 or cedi equivalent, commercial interest from August 10, 2011, and costs of GH¢20,000.