STANDARD CHARTERED BANK GH. LTD VS YVONNE G. QUARTEY & 1 ORS
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- JUSTICE GOERGE K. KOOMSON
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Evidence Law
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Applicant sought an order to commit the Respondent for contempt for willfully disobeying a High Court order. The Respondent failed to comply with an order to disclose the location of a truck required to satisfy a judgment debt. The court found Respondent wilfully disobeyed the order, rejecting her defenses and explanations as unreasonable and untenable. The Respondent was found guilty of contempt and fined GH₵5,000.00, with an additional order to pay the value of the truck assessed at GHS51,000.00 within 30 days, or face imprisonment.
In this application, the Applicant prays this Honourable court for an Order committing the Respondent herein for contempt of court in that the Respondent has wilfully disobeyed the orders of the High Court (Commercial Division) dated 24th day of June, 2014.
What then is the claim of the Applicant? Briefly, the material facts which gave rise to the present application are that, the Applicant herein instituted an action in the High Court, Commercial Division against the Defendants for
(i) The recovery of the amount of GH₵307,007.48 being the outstanding balance due on loan facilities granted to the 1st Defendant,
(ii) interest on the said amount from 22nd February, 2010 to date of final payment at the prevailing bank rate
(iii) Costs occasioned by the action;
or in the alternative,
(iv) an order for the judicial sale of a residential property situate at Dansoman, Accra.
Subsequently, the parties entered into terms of settlement which was filed with the court on 8th day of October, 2010 and was later adopted by the court as the Consent Judgment in the suit on 13th October, 2010.
According to the Applicant, the Defendants failed to abide by the terms of the Consent Judgment and consequently, Applicant proceeded into execution. It was then discovered that all the properties used in securing the facility by the Defendants were non-existent and that an articulator truck with registration number GT 8914-Z purchased in the joint names of the parties herein had also been put out of the reach of the Applicant and all attempts to obtain the said truck to put it up for auctioning for the purposes of defraying part of the judgment debt proved futile. The Applicant, therefore, applied to the court to examine the Respondent herein as to the whereabouts of the truck. In granting that application on 24th June, 2014, His Lordship Justice K. Dorgu, ordered the Respondent to direct the Registrar of the Court as to the exact location of the said truck in Tema for attachment purposes in satisfaction of the judgment debt due and owing (hereinafter, the “Order”).
It is this Order of my brother, Dorgu, J, that Applicant contends Respondent has violated or disobeyed in that in blatant disregard of that Order, Respondent wilfully refused and/or neglected to direct the Registrar to the exact location of the said Truck in Tema in spite of several and persistent demands on her so to do, for which reason she ought to be committed to prison for contempt of court.
In response, Re