THE REPUBLIC vs FIRST ATLANTIC BANK LIMITED & ORS

This is a Ruling on an application brought for and on behalf of the 1st Respondent Bank (hereinafter called the Applicant) to be struck out as Respondent.

In a 10 paragraph, Affidavit in Support of the motion sworn to by one Mark Ofori, the head of the Legal Department of 1st Respondent bank, he deposed that they have been served with a contempt application and the Bank as a limited liability company has been made a party to the application. That in a contempt application where an allegation is made against a limited liability company, it is the Directors of the company that the application must go to. That this present application in which the Bank has been made a Respondent is contrary to the settled practice and that is not the first in time an application of this nature has been mounted by the Applicant. Therefore, the prayer that the Court should strike out the Bank as a Respondent on grounds of Misjoiner.

In its Affidavit in Opposition, the Applicant, Erdmac Company (hereinafter known as the Respondent) deposed through one Moses Hammond the General Manager that the 1st Respondent is a full body corporate duly registered in Ghana and is a full legal personality amenable to the jurisdiction of this Court. That statute makes provision for 1st Respondent to sue for reliefs including the conviction of others and can also be sued for reliefs including conviction. That in the substantive application before the Court, the circumstances make the 1st Respondent/Applicant company a necessary party to the suit to prosecute its case against the Applicant/Respondent

The facts giving rise to the instant application is that the Applicant/Respondent, Erdmac Company Limited had filed an application to commit the Respondents/Applicants for contempt of Court on 7th of October 2022. The reasons for such an application was deposed to in a fifty paragraphed Affidavit in Support sworn to by one Sidik Abubakar.

Sometime in 2017, a company by name Nordic Logistics Limited (Nordic) contracted a facility from Energy Commercial Bank Limited to partly finance the acquisition of 8 buses for its business. Energy bank used the 8 buses as the primary security for the facility. In addition, a charge was created by way of mortgage over a house situate at Achimota, Accra belonging to the MD of Nordic. Also, personal guarantees were given to Energy bank by the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Defendants in the substantive suit. The 2nd Respondent acting through and for the 1st Respondent instituted