Try asking the following...
RULING
This is a Preliminary Objection by Applicants/Respondents to the proprieties of Respondent/Applicant’s application to set aside registration of the order of the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, Admiralty and Commercial Courts dated November 16.
Antecedents to this application are based on an Order of this Court dated 23rd March 2022, granting Respondents leave to register the order of the High Court of England and execute same in Ghana and ordering the Applicant to respond 14 days after service, failing which Respondents may proceed with execution of the Order of the High Court of England. The Respondents after an official search at the Registry of the Court, filed notice of registration of the foreign order pursuant to the leave granted by this Honourable Court.
Applicant failed to respond within the time stipulated by the order of the Court and subsequently filed an application to set aside the application to set aside registration of the foreign order on 22nd April 2022.
Respondents filed an Affidavit in Opposition but raised a Preliminary Objection to the whole application. The Court will therefore first deal with that.
The case of the Applicant
The Applicant contends that failure of the Court to hear its application to set aside the registration of the Foreign Judgment is a breach of natural justice, specifically the audi alteram partem rule of natural justice. The Applicant further contends that Respondents’ Affidavit in Opposition to the Applicant’s application to set aside constituted a fresh step. Consequently, the Respondents waived their right to raise any Preliminary Objection. It is also the Applicant’s contention that if the Court fails to hear its application to set aside the registration, the Court will be in breach of Order 1 Rule 1(2) of C. I. 47. The Applicant further states that even if the application to set aside was filed out of time as claimed by the Respondents, such non-compliance falls under those curable under Order 81 of the C. I. 47. Also, the Applicant contends that even if the substantive application to set aside was filed out of time, “the sins of the Solicitor ought not to be visited upon the litigating party”. Also, the Applicant asserts that in order for the Court to ascertain the date on which the order of this Honourable Court was served on the Applicants, the Court Bailiff who was responsible for the service of the order ought to be called to give evidence before this Cour