REPUBLIC v. HIGH COURT (COMMERCIAL DIVISION 6), ACCRA
2019
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- DOTSE, JSC (PRESIDING)
- BENIN, JSC
- PWAMANG, JSC
- DORDZIE (MRS), JSC
- AMEGATCHER, JSC
Areas of Law
- Constitutional Law
- Corporate Law
- Civil Procedure
2019
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves Nowfill Solomon Laba's application for Certiorari to nullify High Court orders appointing an Interim Management Committee for Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited. Laba argued error of law and judicial impropriety by Judge Noble-Nkrumah J. The High Court's decision to appoint the committee was within jurisdiction, and allegations of bias were unproven; thus, the Applicant's Prohibition and Certiorari applications were dismissed. The Supreme Court emphasized that the proper remedy for alleged legal errors is appeals, not Certiorari.
DOTSE, JSC:-
PROLOGUE
This is a Ruling, premised on an application at the instance of Nowfill Solomon Laba, the Applicant herein, seeking an order of Certiorari to quash the orders of the High Court, (Commercial Division 6) dated 27th June 2018 and 2nd November 2018 respectively presided over by Noble-Nkrumah J and also to prohibit the said Judge from hearing suit, No. Misc 0032/2018, pending before the said court.
Even though the application in substance is against all three Interested Parties named herein, it is only 1st and 2nd Interested Parties, Wissam Laba and Louis Khater Abi Habib Khater who have filed and sworn to affidavits in opposition.
The 3rd Interested Party, Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited, the corporate entity founded by the Applicant, and the deceased father of the 1st Interested Party and brother of the Applicant, (and is the reason why the Applicant and Nephew are in court) has for very good reasons in our opinion stayed clear of the ensuing legal quagmire that has engulfed the 3rd Interested Party’s business operations for the past couple of years.
CAPACITY OF APPLICANT
In paragraph 4, of the 55 paragraphed affidavit in support of this application, sworn to by the Applicant on 29th November 2018 he deposed to as follows:-
“That I am one of the two founders of Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited, (“3rd Interested Party” or the Company”) the Managing Director and a holder of 50% of the issued shares of the company”. Emphasis
FACTS
On the 8th of March 2018, the Applicant herein, therein as the Plaintiff commenced an action in the High Court, Accra by an Originating Motion seeking cancellation of certain resolutions passed and or taken by Respondents therein, herein Interested Parties, in respect of the Latex Foam Company and claimed specific reliefs against the named Respondents therein in Suit No. MISC. 0032/2018.
In order to lay bare the facts from the genesis of this dispute, it is considered worthwhile to set out in extenso, the title of the suit and the reliefs which the Applicant claimed in this Originating Motion against the Respondents therein:-
In the Matter of the Companies Act 1963 (Act 179)
And
In the Matter of an Application under Section 217 for Injunction and Declaration
Nowfill S. Laba
H/No. 5
1st Rangoon Close
Cantonments Accra
Vrs
1. Wissam Laba
No. 6 Shippi Close
Plot No. 167 East Cantonments
2. Louis Khater Abi Habib Khater
Abi Habib Building Roumieh
El Metn, Lebanon
3. Latex Foam Rubber P