The plaintiffs are the widows of the late Francis Kwasivie Akyemde who died as a result of a motor accident on 14 March 1964. They bring the action on behalf of themselves and of the other dependants of the late Akyemde claiming the sum of £G15,000 damages in accordance with the provisions of sections 16 (1) and 18 of the Civil Liability Act, 1963,1 against all the defendants in the writ of summons.
No evidence has been led why the action was not instituted in the name of the personal representative nor indeed if there was any personal representative at all; in view however that this action was [p.562]instituted about a year after the accident the point is not material for our purposes.
One Kwame Sankyere who was the only eyewitness or a person present in the car when it was involved in the accident gave evidence for the plaintiffs. He said that on 14 March 1964 he, the deceased, one Mohamedu and one Kwasi Anorba travelled in a car from Hohoe to Ho. Mohamedu was a magician, Sankyere and Anorba were apprentices to Mohamedu. On arriving at Hohoe their car had a breakdown, nevertheless they went to the Hotel de Majestic. The proprietor of the hotel was the late Kwasivie Akyemde. At the hotel he saw his master talking to the late Akyemde. Shortly after, they were given a Volkswagon car No. WE 2769 owned by the first defendant who also provided them with a driver. He saw the first defendant fill the petrol tank with petrol but he did not know what the arrangements were concerning the loaning of the car. Sankyere said that they were going to perform magic in the Hotel de Majestic but on arriving there, they had no tickets in accordance with the provisions of the Entertainments Duty Act, 1962.2 The late Akyemde therefore offered to travel to Ho with them to help them obtain tickets from the revenue authorities. He said on that day, they set out in the Volkswagon driven by the first defendant's driver and arrived safely in Ho. They went round to see various persons connected with the issue of entertainment tickets but were unsuccessful in their mission and at about 6.30 p.m. they decided to return to Hohoe. The late Akyemde was sitting next to the driver and the rest of them were sitting on the back seat. When they set out it was getting dark and therefore the driver put on the lights of the car ; between mile nine and ten on the Ho-Anyirawase road, they saw an oncoming vehicle, the driver of the Volkswagon dipped his lights and the on-coming vehicle dipped in
