MUSICIANS UNION OF GHANA v. ABRAHAM AND ANOTHER

JUDGMENT OF CECILIA KORANTENG-ADDOW J.

In this application the plaintiffs are asking for an order of an interim injunction to restrain the second defendants from "(1) making any further releases of the plaintiffs' records, and (2) from making any further royalty payments to the first defendant on behalf of the plaintiffs . . ." and (3) an order that any royalties held by the first defendant from the second defendants be deposited at the court pending the determination of this suit. Finally, they ask for an order for interim preservation of a set of musical instruments listed in the schedule attached to the application.

The writ of summons upon which this motion was brought, is indorsed with a claim for (1) ¢1,000,000 being composers' and recording artistes' royalties due from the defendants, in respect of the long playing albums, namely (a) "Adam and Eve" (b) "Kusum Beat" (c) "Spiritual Ghana" (d) "Meseafo nto nsa" (e) "Party time in Hollywood" and (f) "Sweet Talks"; (2) recovery of possession of the musical instruments; (3) damages for wrongful dismissal; (4) statement of account of all local and foreign sales of the albums named above; and (5) a perpetual injunction to restrain the second defendants from making any further payments to the plaintiffs through the first defendant.

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In the affidavit in support of the motion, fifteen paragraphs of the entire sixteen paragraphed deposition were devoted to explaining the circumstances whereby the musical instruments were purchased. There is not one word about how the plaintiffs became entitled to the royalties they claim, nor the basis for stopping the release of the records listed at paragraph sixteen of the affidavit. Counsel for the plaintiffs in his argument relied extensively on an agreement concluded between the first and second defendants whereby the first defendant granted sole and exclusive right to the second defendants to publish the work of the band, "Sweet Talks" for which the plaintiffs played.

The facts of the case as gathered from the pleadings and affidavits filed by the parties are these: The plaintiffs are attorneys for A. B. Crentsil and eleven others who are bandsmen. The first defendant is the managing director of an establishment called Talk of the Town Ltd.; this company is the proprietor of the Sweet Talks Band of which the first defendant is the manager. The plaintiffs were engaged to play in this band. It is difficult to discern from the affidavit and pleadings who was t