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JUDGMENT
JUDGMENT
INTRODUCTION
The matter before the Court is a motion on notice for an Order of
Committal for Contempt of Court, filed at the Registry of this Court on 21st
January 2022, pursuant to Order 50 Rule 1 of the High Court [Civil
Procedure] Rules, (2004) CI 47.
In the case of the Republic v. Mensa-Bonsu & Others; Ex Parte AttorneyGeneral [1995-96] 1 GLR 377@403, the learned Adade JSC (as he then was)
stated as follows:
“There are different forms of contempt. Underlying all of them, however,
is one basic notion, that the roadways and highways of public justice
should at all times be free from obstruction. Conduct which tends to create
such an obstruction constitutes contempt. Thus, interfering with witnesses
or jurors; frightening off parties to litigation; refusing to answer questions
in court; commenting on pending proceedings in such a manner as to
prejudice the outcome; running down the courts and the judges; refusing
to obey an order of a court; any of these, if calculated to, or tend to,
impede or obstruct the course of justice will constitute contempt. And
conduct complained of therefore must be viewed and assessed against the
backdrop of this basic principle”.
Thus, the first type of contempt is where there is a pending motion,
seeking to restrain the parties from interfering with the status quo;
And the second scenario deals with the willful disobedience of a pending
order or judgment of the court.
Parties’ Submissions
APPLICANT’S CASE
In a 20-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, 3
rd Applicant, Nene
Teye Narh-Gbeeku, on his own behalf and on behalf of the other
Applicants, deposed that 1
st and 2nd Respondents willfully disobeyed an
order of the Court (differently constituted) in Suit number E1/097/2021
entitled Asafoatse Agyeman Okoforobour IV and 2 ors vrs Asafoatse Tetteh
Huadji VI. He deposed that on 5th November 2021, the High Court, Tema,
presided over by Her Ladyship Justice Elizabeth Ankumah, granted an
Order for Interlocutory Injunction and directed that “… the Defendant,
whether by himself, his servants, agents, assigns, workmen, privies or otherwise
howsoever are restrained from carrying out any acts of trespass on their ancestral
lands pending the final determination of the suit”.
He deposed further that 1st Respondent had notice of the said order by
reason of the fact that he had notice of the pending motion for
Interlocutory Injunction as well as the grant of same.
Similarly, 2n