August 15, 2013
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court of Ghana, per Akamba JSC, reviewed an appeal by the Omanhene of the Edina Traditional Area against a Court of Appeal decision convicting him for contempt arising from disobedience of a 2001 High Court interim injunction restraining him from performing public functions as chief. Affirming the conviction and sentence (GH¢ 8,000 or 30 days), the Court explained that orders of courts must be obeyed until set aside and that a stay of execution suspends enforcement processes but does not authorize contravention. The Court found that the original injunction was void for want of jurisdiction and for failing to be preceded by a writ, as the matter affected chieftaincy and fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Houses of Chiefs. Nonetheless, contempt was properly established for willful disobedience prior to the order being vacated. Costs and an undertaking order were set aside.
AKAMBA, J.S.C.
This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast delivered on the 7th day of December 2011, convicting the respondent/appellant (herein after referred to simply as appellant) for contempt.
This case from its inception clearly demonstrates the deplorable handling of an interlocutory application by the High Court, Cape Coast pending before it without recourse to the rules of court. The result is the clear case of a comedy of errors compounded also by poor representation especially from the appellant’s camp. The fact situation is reminiscent of what occasioned my respected and able brother Dotse, JSC to lament in the case of The Republic vs Edward Acquaye, Ex Parte Charles Essel, in Civil Appeal No J4/11/2008 of 10th December 2008 thus: “This case is a classic example of how a small issue can be glossed over by an over zealous litigant and thereby introduce diversionary and irrelevant matters into the main body of the case.” In the end the real issues for redress were glossed over in pursuit of non beneficial objectives.
FACTS
A brief statement of the facts which triggered the action would assist in appreciating the present outcome. On 21st June 2001 one Supi Mark Aaba (now deceased) initiated the suit when he applied to the High Court, Cape Coast for an order of Interim Injunction to restrain the appellant from exercising all public functions as chief until his status as Omanhene has been fully determined by the appropriate forum. The appropriate forum for the determination of the status of the appellant as Omanhene can only be a reference to the Judicial Committee of the Central Regional House of Chiefs. The High Court per Iris May Heward-Mills (as she then was), without any hesitation and deliberations, granted the interim relief restraining the appellant from among others, exercising all functions as Chief until the full and final determination of his status as Omanhene. From the records, there does not appear to be any writ pursuant to which the application was predicated.
Prior to the filing of the application for interim injunction, the appellant had been duly nominated, elected, appointed or installed as Omanhene of the Edina Traditional Area in accordance with the customs and traditions of the traditional area under the then Chieftaincy Act, 1971, Act 370. Following this event, the aforementioned late Supi Mark Aaba and others from Elmina, the seat of the newly appointed Omanhene, filed a petition at the Judi