OSEI ACHEAMPONG v. GLOBAL ACESS LTD
2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE DR. RICHMOND OSEI-HWERE
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Commercial Law
2019
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
In this case, the plaintiff sued the defendant financial institution for failing to cash a total of nearly 200,000 Ghana Cedis from his accounts and for additional damages due to non-honoured cheques. The defendant did not respond to the suit, leading to a default judgment for the plaintiff to recover the claimed sums and a further 15,000.00 GHC in general damages. The court emphasized that general damages lie for every infringement of an absolute right, while specific losses must be strictly proved if quantifiable.
JUDGMENT
On 17th December, 2018, the plaintiff herein issued a writ of summons against the defendant herein seeking the following reliefs:
a. Cash the sum of Ninety-Nine Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty Ghana Cedis Thirty-Nine Pesewas (99,320.39) being money held in the Plaintiff’s savings account with the defendant financial institution.
b. Interest on the sum of Ninety-Nine Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty Ghana Cedis Thirty-Nine Pesewas (99,320.39) at the prevailing bank rate from October, 2018 to the date of final payment.
c. Cash the sum of One Hundred Thousand and One Ghana Cedis(GHC100,001.00) being the fixed deposit investment held by the defendant institution on behalf of the plaintiff and the interest attendant thereto.
d. General, special, exemplary and punitive damages against the defendant institution for its failure to honour numerous cheques the plaintiff drew on his account to enable him make payments to his clients on a weekly basis because his legitimate expectation that the said cheques would be honoured to enable him pay winnings of his clients was thwarted though the plaintiff had sufficient funds in his account.
e. Costs incurred by the plaintiff in his self-sponsored trip to Accra to have a meeting with the executives of the defendant institution at its headquarters in Osu which took three days but yielded no positive result.
f. Costs.
g. SUCH FURTHER ORDER(S) as the Honorable Court may deem fit.
On 19th February, 2019 the plaintiff filed a motion on notice forjudgment in default of defence after the defendant had failed or refused to file a defence. The defendant was duly served with the motion but it failed file an affidavit in response. On 26thFebruary, 2019 judgment was entered in favour of the plaintiff against the defendant in respect of reliefs (a), (b) and (c) of the writ of summons. Costs of GHC 15,000.00 was awarded against the defendant. The matter was adjourned for hearing relating to the assessment of damages.
The law is that general damages lie for every infringement of an absolute right. The Supreme Court held in the case of Delmas Agency Ghana Ltd vrs Food Distributors International Ltd [2007/2008] SCGLR 748, 760 thus:
‘‘General damages is such as the law will presume to be the probable or natural consequences of the defendant’s act. It arises by inference of law and therefore need not be proved by evidence. The law implies general damages in every infringement of an absolute right. The catch is that on