KWABENA BOATENG v. MELBOND MICROFINANCE COMPANY LTD
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- SAMUEL K. A. ASIEDU
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Banking and Finance Law
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The plaintiff, a businessman, filed a lawsuit against the defendant, a financial institution, for locking him out of his shop and seizing his merchandise and properties without a court order, claiming financial losses and contract breach. The court held that the defendant's actions of locking the shop were unlawful, but it validated the defendant's seizure of the plaintiff's secured properties as per the Borrowers and Lenders Act, 2008. The court found that the plaintiff failed to prove misrepresentation of interest rates by the defendant and was bound by the contract terms. However, the defendant’s unilateral sale of seized properties without proper notification and valuation was condemned, awarding the plaintiff nominal damages for trespass, and costs with directives for an independent audit of accounts.
JUDGMENT
By a writ of summons issued on the 11th November 2016, the plaintiff claims against the defendant company.
a) An order declaring that the act of the defendant in locking out plaintiff and ransacking his shop and carrying away his merchandise without any court order is unlawful and an affront to Plaintiff’s right to due process.
b) A declaration that the unilateral takeover of Plaintiff’s houses without recourse to the courts is unlawful, void and of no effect.
c) An order directed against the defendants to pay for the merchandise they carried from plaintiff shop and had kept all this while.
d) An order directed against the defendant to pay for the sales of the one week that defendants locked out plaintiff and prevented him from working.
e) An order declaring defendant’s acts as a breach of contract and compensation for the breach.
f) Any other relief the court deem fit.
After the service of the writ and the accompanying statement of claim on the defendant and after the filing of appearance and a statement of defence by the defendant, the matter was set down for pre-trial settlement but when the parties could not settle at pre-trial, issues were set down and the case referred to trial.
From the pleadings filed by the parties the court finds that it is not in dispute that the plaintiff is a businessman and operates a store at Zongo Lane in Accra where he deals in musical instruments. It is also not in dispute that the defendant is a company incorporated under the laws of Ghana and operates as a non-bank financial institution. Again, from the evidence adduced before the court, the parties do not dispute that in December 2014, the defendant advanced the sum of GH₵30,000.00 to the plaintiff as a loan to expire at the end of six months as evidenced by exhibit 1 tendered by the defendant company herein. There is also pleading and evidence to the effect that the plaintiff also took another loan of GH₵3,200.00 from the defendant. The plaintiff has pleaded in paragraph 7 of his statement of claim that he has finished paying off the GH₵3,200.00 loan together with interest thereon. Nonetheless, the defendant has denied the plaintiff’s assertion of full re-payment of the loan in paragraph 4 of its statement of defence.
However, the defendant’s witnesses have admitted, as per the answer given by DW1, Isaac Boye, under cross examination on the 26th October 2017 that the plaintiff had paid off the loan of GH₵3, 200.00 which was subsequent to the first l