JOHNSON OTENG – AMPOFO VS KOFI GYAU & ANOR
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP JUSTICE PATRICIA QUANSAH
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence Law
2024
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff, a contractor, sued the Defendants, claiming GH¢357,000 for work done on a warehouse construction, along with interest, damages, and costs. The Defendants argued that the Plaintiff's work was substandard and counterclaimed for damages. The Court found that the Plaintiff had completed 85% of the project and was entitled to payment for the work done. The agreed contract sum was GH¢480,000, and the 1st Defendant was found to be jointly and severally liable with the 2nd Defendant. The Plaintiff was awarded damages and costs, while the Defendants' counterclaims were dismissed.
1. INTRODUCTION
[i] The Plaintiff herein, a private contractor who provides project contractual civil works services for clients was said to have entered into a contract with the 1st Defendant to undertake the building of some warehouses, herein after referred to as the warehouse project.
2. FACTS OF THE PLAINTIFF’S CASE[ii] Per the Plaintiff, the agreement was to construct a warehouse for the Defendant at Kaase, a suburb of Kumasi.
The Plaintiff averred that he completed that project and entered into another agreement with the Defendant to construct a second warehouse also at Kaase; on account of the fact that the Plaintiff did a good job with the construction of the first; and that was why the Plaintiff was again contracted by the Defendants to construct a second warehouse; made up of an old structure to be renovated and a new warehouse to be built from scratch. [iii] The Plaintiff further contended that he was engaged to undertake the second warehouse project after the Defendants had had various challenges building that warehouse with their own employees.
Also, even before he took over the project, the Plaintiff stated he dealt with a lot of ancillary issues like digging very deep trenches and building a retaining wall, which had hitherto collapsed and killed one of the Defendants’ workers. [iv] Per the agreement between the parties, therefore, the warehouse project to be undertaken by the Plaintiff included building a fence wall, a retaining wall, the reconstruction of an old warehouse, the construction of a new warehouse, the construction of a forecourt and also to do surveying and setting, among others. [v] The Plaintiff reiterated that the building of the retaining wall was extremely critical for the survival of the warehouse project and a lot of work had to go in to help protect and secure the warehouse project structure, in order to deal with all the ancillary problems that had bedevilled the project before the Plaintiff took over. [vi] The parties subsequently agreed on the total sum of Gh¢480, 000. 00 for the warehouse project; but the Plaintiff had to prefinance same.
During the pendency of the project therefore, the Plaintiff stated he had about 15 to 40 workers depending on the schedule each day and he took care of them all, was on site daily and had the project underway in no time, to the admiration and surprise of the Defendants, who had earlier tried without success to overcome all the challenges.
As a result, the Plain