JUSTICE HYMNS v. MICKY OSEI BERKO & ANOR.

Per Writ of Summons filed by the Plaintiff against the 1st and 2nd Defendants on 29th June, 2023, Plaintiff claims the following:

a. Declaration that the continued broadcast of the said advertisement long after the expiration of the agreement is unlawful.

b. An Order directed at the Defendants to pay the sum of GH¢200,000.00 representing over two years of playing the advert from May, 2021 till date of issue of the Writ.

c. Interest on the said amount at the commercial bank rate from each date of the unlawful broadcast or when it became due until date of final payment.

d. Costs inclusive of Solicitor fees.

1 st and 2nd Defendants entered appearance and filed Statement of Defence. They denied all the material facts. They asserted that Plaintiff is unknown to the Defendants as he does not have any contractual relationship with any of them. Further that Plaintiff was engaged by Mediagold Limited, a media and advertising company of which the 1st Defendant is the CEO; a fact which is very well known to the Plaintiff.

When pleadings were closed, the following issues were set down for trial:

1.Whether or not the 1st Defendant engaged the Plaintiff for a fee of GH¢4000.00 for a month.

2.Whether or not the contract was to run only for the Easter period only.

3.Whether or not the 2nd Defendant was the beneficiary of the said contract between the Plaintiff and the 1st Defendant.

THE BURDEN OF PROOF/ BURDEN OF PERSUASION

Before proceeding to deal with the evaluation of the law and the evidence in this case viz-a viz the issues set down, let me make some preliminary remarks about what was required by the law in relation to the duty of the Plaintiffs. By law, the Plaintiffs have a burden to prove their case to the standard required in civil actions; that is, on a balance of probabilities.

Section 11 of the Evidence Act, 1975 (NRCD 323) states in part;

Section 11—Burden of Producing Evidence Defined.

Section 11(1) for the purposes of this Decree, the burden of producing evidence means the obligation of a party to introduce sufficient evidence to avoid a ruling against him on the issue.

Section 11 (4) In other circumstances the burden of producing evidence requires a party to produce sufficient evidence so that on all the evidence a reasonable mind could conclude that the existence of the fact was more probable than its nonexistence.

Ollennu J, in the case of **Majol