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November 12, 2014
SUPREME COURT
CORAM
AKOTO BAMFO (MRS), J.S.C:-
On the 14th of July 2014, the applicant herein filed this motion for an order ‘’to stay execution of the Ruling of the court of Appeal’’ on the grounds stated in the supporting affidavit.
The said affidavit sets out in detail the events that culminated into the present application
The applicant averred that 2 suits involving him, the respondent and one other over the same subject matter, the land in dispute, were consolidated and tried by the High Court. Judgment went in favour of the respondent herein. The applicant appealed against the decision to the Court of Appeal which reversed same. Upon an appeal filed by the respondent, the Supreme Court, on 30th January 2013 pronounced on the matter, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal and restored the decision of the High Court.
Thereafter the applicant made a discovery that the High Court judgment was obtained by fraud and therefore commenced a fresh action in the High Court for these declaratory reliefs namely;
(1) A declaration that the judgment of the High Court confirmed by the Supreme Court was obtained through a fraudulent document and therefore is null and void
(2) A declaration that the title of the plaintiff to the land is good and valid as it came genuinely from the Lands Commission.
During the pendency of the application for Directions, the defendant applied to the court for an order dismissing the suit on these 2 grounds: an abuse of the court’s processes and estoppel.
The High Court, on the 2nd of December 2013 acceded to the request and dismissed the suit. The applicant promptly filed a Notice of appeal dated the 2nd of December 2013 against the order of dismissal.
When the High Court refused to grant an order for stay of execution pending the hearing of the appeal, the applicant made a repeat application to the Court of Appeal .The application suffered the same fate, for it was again refused.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the applicant lodged an appeal against the ruling of the Court of Appeal and subsequently filed the instant application.
The applicant submitted that there were serious issues to be determined and there was therefore the need for staying the orders made by the Court of Appeal. According to him, he stood to suffer greater hardship should the application be refused.
The respondents strenuously opposed the application. It was submitted that the substantive matter and the application founded on it smacked of bad faith since the suit h
AI Generated Summary
Sitting as a single Justice, Akoto Bamfo (Mrs.), J.S.C., considered an application by the applicant to stay execution of a Court of Appeal ruling in a protracted land dispute. Two suits over the same land were consolidated and tried in the High Court, which entered judgment for the respondent; the Court of Appeal reversed, but the Supreme Court restored the High Court’s judgment in January 2013. Alleging fraud underlying that judgment, the applicant instituted fresh declaratory proceedings, which the High Court dismissed as abuse/estoppel. After stays were refused by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal, the applicant appealed the Court of Appeal’s refusal and sought a stay in the Supreme Court. Applying Order 20 of CI 16, the Supreme Court held that only executable orders can be stayed, and the Court of Appeal’s refusal to grant a stay is non-executable. Accordingly, the application for stay was refused and dismissed.