Judgment:
These two appeals from judgments of the Agona Native Court "B", were, by consent of Parties, consolidated by the Court on the 22nd July 1948, the reliefs claimed in each case being the same, and the right to them in each case being the same, and the right to them in each case having arisen out of the same transaction or series of transactions.
It should be observed that though Ohene Kojo Amuakwa of Duakwa, by his representative Okyiami Kweku Kyirem, appeared at the hearing of both cases as a co-defendant, he has not appealed in either suit.
Counsel for the defendant-appellant has elected to argue first his additional ground of appeal numbered 5, which, as amended, is to the effect that the trial by the Native Court of the two suits with the joinder of the co-defendant in each, without any Writ of Summons or Formal Order having been served on him was contrary to section 39 of Ordinance No. 22 of 1944-the Native Courts (Colony) Ordinance, and that the whole proceedings were thereby vitiated.
The Plaintiff Kofi Munko in the first of the consolidated suits, on the 8th of August 1947, by motion on notice, applied to the Native Court for the joinder of Ohene Kojo Amuakwa of Agona Duakwa as a co-defendant.
On the same day the Plaintiff Kobina Idan, in the second suit abovenamed, made a similar application in the same manner. The defendant Assimeh opposed the application in each case. Okyiami Kweku Kyirem who attended as representative of Ohene Kojo Amuakwa, did not object to the joinder of the Ohene in either case; and the Native Court accordingly made an Order for the joinder of Ohene Kojo Amuakwa as a co-defendant in each case.
The jurisdiction of Native Courts to add parties is regulated by section 39 of the said Native Courts Ordinance which reads as follows:-
"If it shall appear at any stage of a cause before a Native Court that any person other than the parties to that cause, ought by reason of his having an interest in, or of his being likely to be affected by the result of the cause, to be made a party to the cause, the Native Court may either of its own motion or on the application of the said person order that he shall be made a party to the cause, and on such order being made, notification thereof shall be served on the said person."
The provisions of this section differ in some measure from the Rule of the Supreme Court which relate to similar matters. Under the Native Court Ordinance, it is the person to be joined who can apply that
