THOMAS GUEADAM v. ALHAJI AMADU BILLA
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- ANGELINA MENSAH-HOMIAH (MRS.) JUSTICE OF THE HIGH COURT
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Evidence Law
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Plaintiff alleged that he and the Defendant entered into a joint lumber export business in 2000, investing 1,500,000.00 CFA francs. However, the Defendant never accounted for any proceeds from the business. The Defendant's defense was struck out for not complying with court orders, and the court heard the case solely based on the Plaintiff’s evidence. The court found the Plaintiff’s evidence partly credible and awarded him the sum invested (converted to cedis) along with interest and costs.
JUDGMENT
The Plaintiff claims against the defendant for an order to account for profits accruing from his investment of 1,500,000.00 CFA francs in their joint lumber export business from January, 2000 to date as well as interest.
The facts of this case are quite interesting. According to the Plaintiff, he came to Ghana sometime in January, 2000 to invest his 1,500,000.00 CFA francs in the onion business, but the defendant who is a fellow Moshie man resident in Ghana convinced him to invest in the lumber business. The Plaintiff alleged that he handed over that money to the defendant for the two to undertake a joint lumber business. The two are alleged to have travelled to Mim to purchase lumber and had the same delivered to the defendant's customer at Kaya, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. On the blind side of the plaintiff, the said customer acting in concert with the defendant used the proceeds to buy "waakye" i.e. beans and sent the same to the defendant for sale in Ghana. After that transaction, the plaintiff contended that he and the defendant bought timber from other places in Ghana for resale in Burkina Faso but the defendant kept him in the dark as to how he conducted the re-sale in that country; has never rendered accounts to him; and has not given him any part of the proceeds irrespective of several promises, such as buying a truck for him. It is also the plaintiff's case that the defendant is living a luxurious life with the proceeds from their joint business whilst he lives in extreme poverty and has become more or less homeless in Ghana. These assertions were denied by the defendant and he gave his contrary version in his statement of defence which has since been struck out for non-compliance with the orders of this court in respect of filing witness statement(s).
It is provided under Order 32 Rule 7A (3) (b) of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004, C.I. 47 as amended by C.I. 87 as follows:
“ where a party has failed to comply with any of the directions given at a case management conference or a pre-trial review or both, the Judge may ...
(b) strike out the defence and counterclaim as the case may be, if the non complying party is a defendant"
Oscar Kofi Jimmah who held brief for John Akparibo, counsel for the defendant was in court on 28/07/2015 when the court gave directions at to the filing of witness statements by the parties and a date was fixed for a case management conference. Later, the court was informed that the parties were a