MRS GINA BLAY VS PHC MOTORS LTD & ANOR

This is an Interpleader Claim in which a Claimant has claimed ownership of certain goods seized by the Execution Creditor in execution of the judgment debt owed to it by a Judgment Debtor in a previous suit. In Republic v. High Court Accra; Ex parte Anyan (Platinum Holdings Interested Party) (2009) SCGLR 255 @261, the court defined the word interpleader thus: Interpleader is a proceeding by which a person, from whom two or more persons claim the same property or debt or land who does not himself claim the property or dispute the debt, can protect himself from legal proceedings by calling upon the two claimants to interplead – that is to say, claim against one another so that the title to the property or debt may be decided. Interpleaders may be divided into two types; the first is where a sheriff seizes or intends to seize goods by way of execution and a person (other than the judgment debtor) claims them. Here the sheriff initiates the proceedings to determine whether the property belongs to the judgment debtor (and therefore can be seized) or to the claimant.

The court ordered the Claimant, a limited liability company, to be Plaintiff in the interpleader suit and the Execution Creditor to be Defendant. These parties would subsequently be referred to as the Plaintiff and the Defendant respectively. It was the Plaintiffs’ claim that they were importers of automobiles for sale in Ghana. The Plaintiff contended further that per an agreement between them and the Judgment Debtor which is an automobile dealer it had arranged to have its vehicles displayed in the Judgment Debtor’s premises for the purposes of sales and marketing. It had therefore displayed the following vehicles in the Judgment Debtor’s showroom: a. Tata Indigo with registration number GM 3933-13 b. Tata Telcoline Pick Up with Chassis Number MAT374057C9L00317 c. Tata Telcoline Pick Up with Chassis Number MAT374054C9L00056 d. Tata Surmo GX with Chassis Number MAT413321C9L00516 e. Tata Aria Dicor with Chassis Number MAT614040ERL00045 f. Range Rover Sport with Chassis Number SALLSAAF4CA751989 g. Tata Ace HT Van with Chassis Number MAT445052CZL00850 h. Tata Ace HT Van with Chassis Number MAT445052DZL00125 also registered as GM8534-13 i. Tata Ace HT Van with Chassis Number MAT445052DZL00132.

Furthermore, the Plaintiffs asserted that they had also installed computers to facilitate their operations within the Judgment Debtor’s premises. All these properties had been seized by the Defendant. The Plain