MET CAPITAL GROUP LIMITED EAST LEGON, ACCRA vs GUARANTY TRUST BANK (GHANA) LTD. ACCRA
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP, JUSTICE JENNIFER A. DADZIE
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Tort Law
- Evidence Law
2018
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff, an investment banking firm in Ghana, claimed that the 1st Defendant bank breached its duty of care by failing to block funds as instructed, resulting in significant financial losses. The court found that the 1st Defendant did breach its duty of care, and the Plaintiff was entitled to general damages and the recovery of the transferred funds. However, the court denied the Plaintiff's claims for specific lost profits and defamation, as such claims were either not justified or too remote.
The Plaintiff is a body corporate registered under the laws of Ghana.
It is engaged in the business of investment banking with its core activities in the areas of fund management, corporate finance and business advisory services.
The 1st Defendant is a banker to both the Plaintiff and the 2nd Defendant, who is also a client of the Plaintiff.
A very brief summary of the material facts which gave rise to the matter before this Court as gleaned from the Plaintiff’s pleadings, documentary evidence and the testimony of its representative, Mr. Eugene Asiamah-Boadi, its Managing Director, are as follows.
It is the claim of the Plaintiff that it gave to the 1st Defendant specific payment instructions in respect of its account held with the 1st Defendant bank for the execution of a financial transaction in favour of the 2nd Defendant.
These instructions were the resolutions that had been arrived at by all three (3) parties to this suit, the Plaintiff, the 1st and 2nd Defendants, at a meeting held between and among themselves, according to the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff complains, however, that in carrying out the said instructions, the 1st Defendant breached its duty of care owed to the Plaintiff with the result that the Plaintiff relied on the advice and assurances of the 1st Defendant to its detriment, thereby causing the Plaintiff to suffer severe losses, both financial and otherwise.
The Plaintiff, as a result, caused a Writ of Summons to be issued on its behalf on October 6, 2016 in which the Plaintiff claimed against the Defendants, jointly and severally, the following reliefs:
“a)Special Damages of Ten Million United States Dollars ($10, 000, 000. 00)or its Cedi Equivalent of Forty Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢40, 000, 000. 00)for lost income.
b) General Damages of One Hundred Million Ghana Cedis(GH¢100, 000, 000. 00) for breach of duty of care to the Plaintiff.
c) General Damages of Thirty Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢30, 000, 000. 00)for Defamation.
d) Recovery of the sum of Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars ($550, 000. 00) (blocked funds).
e) Interest on the Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars($550, 000. 00).
f) Cost including legal fees”.
The 1st Defendant denied all the allegations of the Plaintiff.
Its defence in brief is to the effect that it did not give the Plaintiff any assurances on which the Plaintiff relied to its detriment and it carried out all the instructions of the Plaintiff as it could within the co