JUSTICE HOFABA vs EMMNAUEL KLU SOWAH (DRIVER) & ORS

By a motion on notice filed on 22nd November, 2022, the Defendants/Applicants (hereafter referred to as the Applicants) supplicate this Honourable Court for an Order to strike out the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Defendants (that is, all the Defendants except the 1st Defendant) from this suit upon grounds set out in a twelve-paragraphed affidavit in support deposed to and filed, on even date, by Vincent Aboagye, the Law Clerk of AFISEM CHAMBERS, Accra (the Law Office of the Solicitors engaged by the Applicants).

The application is undergirded by Order 4 Rule 5(2)(a) of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47) which provides:

“Misjoinder and non-joinder of parties

5. (2) At any stage of proceedings the Court may on such terms as it thinks just either of its own motion or on application

(a) order any person who has been improperly or unnecessarily made a party or who for any reason is no longer a party or a necessary party to cease to be a party;”

It is the prayer of the Applicants that, the 2nd to 6th Defendants be struck out from the instant suit as they have no interest whatsoever in the subject matter in dispute to justify their presence as Defendants. Counsel for the Applicants therefore contends that the 2nd to 6th Defendants have been improperly or unnecessarily made parties to the suit.

On the contrary, the Plaintiff/Respondent (hereafter referred to as the Respondent) is vehemently opposed to the application for the misjoinder of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Defendants. Therefore, upon seeking leave, and obtaining same from this Court, the Respondent ultimately refiled an eleven-paragraphed Affidavit in Opposition to the Applicants’ motion on 10th February, 2023.

The Respondent asseverates in paragraphs 4 to 11 of the Affidavit in Opposition as below:

“4. That the depositions in the affidavit in support are denied in its [sic] entirety to the extent that they are not factual.

5. That the depositions in paragraphs 8, 9 and 10 of the affidavit in support are denied and I say that the said applicants have erected various structures on my land and they live on the land.

6. That the 2nd and 5th Defendants/Applicants have a structure on the land and they live right in the said structure. Attached is a copy of the photograph of the structure in which the 2nd and 5th Defendants/Applicants dwell in and this is marked as Exhibit A.

7. That the 3rd Defendant/Applicant has a structure on the land and he lives right in the said st