MBIBADONG MICHAEL v. UMARU ALIAS FULANI MAN

JUDGEMENT

The plaintiff filed this suit seeking a refund of GHC1,300 being amount he gave to

the defendant as payment for two cows, GHC500 for breach of contract and

incidental expenses. On 25th August 2022 the defendant admitted owing plaintiff

only GHC500 and not GHC1,300 as claimed by plaintiff. Judgment was entered in

part for the amount admitted and defendant subsequently paid the GHC500 to

plaintiff. Defendant denied liability for the other claims. Issues were tied on these

other claims and it was up to plaintiff to make his case and defendant to raise his

defence in full trial.

The summary of the plaintiff’s case in the writ of summons is that sometime in

October 2018 the defendant approached him with a request for money to solve a

problem but will repay in kind with two cows, which he actually showed him, in the

presence of a witness and he (plaintiff) gave the GHC1,300 to defendant in the

presence of that witness but left the cows with defendant for some time. Plaintiff

said after five months when he contacted defendant for the cows, defendant told

him his elder brother was not around so plaintiff should wait. Since then, defendant

has failed to either give out the cows or return the money, hence his action.

In his witness statement however, plaintiff varied the details of his case significantly.

In this statement, plaintiff said defendant made the request for GHC1,200 to solve a

problem and he will repay with cows. Plaintiff said he informed his friend Bright

Nlo who had earlier on told him he needed some cows to buy and Bright gave him

GHC500 to give to defendant in the presence of Wujabon as part-payment. Plaintiff

added that later on defendant made a request to Bright for some more funds and

Bright sent GHC400 to defendant via defendant’s mobile money. According to

plaintiff, the defendant later informed him that he will rather give him one fully

grown big cow instead of two young ones and he accepted the change.

Another significant addition to plaintiff’s story is that after paying this total sum of

GHC900 to defendant, the latter came to him again and asked for GHC400 to solve a

problem and sell another cow to him. Plaintiff said he informed his sister who had

earlier also said she needed a cow. Plaintiff said his sister gave him the GHC400 and

he gave that to defendant.

The sum total plaintiff gave to defendant from these two different versions with the

same amount of debt is GHC1,300.

First witness for plai