Kofi Agyen-Mensa v. Kuapa Kokoo Limited

AYEBI, JA 1. This is an appeal against the judgment of a Kumasi High Court which held that the termination of the plaintiff/appellant’s appointment as an employee of the defendant/respondent is not unlawful and further that adequate compensation has been paid to the plaintiff/appellant upon termination of his employment.

2. The case of the plaintiff/appellant (referred to hereinafter as plaintiff) is that on 1st April 2002, he was employed as the Administrative Officer of the Kuapa Kokoo Union.

Then on 1st September 2008, he was elevated to the position of an Administrative Manager of the defendant/respondent (hereinafter referred to as defendant) company.

In that position he was a member of the management team of the defendant and secretary to the Board of Directors of defendant company.

As a staff, plaintiff said he worked diligently and contributed to a large measure in enhancing the fortunes of the defendant company to the admiration of the Directors and Management.

He stated categorically that he had never been queried for any misconduct or non-performance before.

But to his utter dismay, his appointment was on 30th December, 2011 terminated on the flimsy excuse of restructuring the company without any prior notice whatsoever.

The termination letter was signed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors instead of the Managing Director, he said.

The plaintiff asserted that as a member of management and secretary to the Board, there has not been any meeting at which the restructuring of the company was discussed.

The plaintiff alleged his termination by the Chairman of the Board of Directors was actuated by malice/ill motive.

This is because the termination at the time disabled him from completing his tenth year of service with the defendant company to qualify for Long Service Award.

3. The plaintiff contended that the termination of his employment was contrary to the terms and conditions of his employment.

He asserted that having been in the employment of the defendant for almost ten (10) years, he is entitled to a redundancy package of 4(four) months gross salary.

Contending that his termination was unfair/wrongful and unjust, he claimed against the defendant as per his amended writ of summons the following reliefs: (a) A declaration that the defendant unfairly/wrongfully terminated the employment of the plaintiff.

b) A declaration that the purported termination of the appointment of the plaintiff by the defendant’s Board Chairman was w