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RULING
On the 19th of March, 2024, the Applicant filed a Motion praying this Court for an Order of Committal, committing the Respondent to Prison for Contempt of Court.
The grounds of the Application are that in Suit No. LD/1408/2017 at the High Court, Land Division, Accra, between the Applicant and the Respondent, he obtained an Interlocutory Injunction on 20th April, 2018 restraining the Defendant therein, her agents, assigns, privies and all those claiming through her from having anything to do with the subject matter land pending the final determination of the suit.
It was attached and marked as Exhibit NLB “A”. It is the case of the Applicant that at the time of preparing the Court processes culminating into Exhibit NLB “A”, the Defendant in the substantive matter and the Respondent had trespassed onto the subject matter land and erected foundation block works and starter pillars.
The Defendant therein appealed against the Injunction Order up to the Supreme Court to no avail.
The Applicant describes the Respondent who is a self-styled Pastor, as a son of the Defendant in the other suit and claimed to have gone onto the land to erect a structure up to the lintel level for religious purposes without any lawful authority from a Court of competent jurisdiction.
The Applicant believes that the acts of the Respondent is a show of his utter disrespect and disobedience to the authority of this Court.
The Application was opposed by the Respondent.
It is trite that Contempt is Quasi-Criminal with the standard of proof no less than the criminal burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt.
In the unreported Judgment of the Supreme Court in THE REPUBLIC VRS. BANK OF GHANA & 5 OTHERS, EX PARTE BENJAMIN DUFFOUR, CIVIL APPEAL NO. J4/34/2018, DATED 6TH JUNE 2018, His Lordship Baffoe Bonnie JSC held: “The standard of proof in contempt proceeding is well settled.
Contempt of Court is a Quasi-Criminal process which requires proof beyond reasonable doubt.
This is so whether the act complained of is Criminal Contempt or Civil Contempt …” (See also: REPUBLIC VRS. NII ACHIA II, EX PARTE JOSHUANMAI ADDO [2015] 83 GMJ 7 @ 13, S. C. , AKELE VRS COFFIE AND ANOTHER AND AKELE VRS OKINE AND ANOR (CONSOLIDATED) [1979] GLR 84–90 & AHMED MUDDY ADAM VRS. FRANK NUAMAH [2018] DLCA 4464). One common thing I discovered from the parties’ respective cases is that they spoke with different mouths.
In simple terms, both the Applicant and the Respondent were not consistent.
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