VINCENT ACQUAH v. ERNEST DUNCAN

Baffour J.A:

This appeal raises for our determination a well-trodden area of law regarding the scope for the grant of an application for summary judgment under Order 14 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, C. I 47. Without a meticulous analysis of the claim and of the nature of a defence, a trial Judge with eagerness to reduce his case load may fall into the pitfall of acceding to a request to end a case by a technical legal knockout. If the summary power is exercised in such a capricious manner, it shuts out a Defendant from the altar of justice without giving him a hearing. This appeal has been precipitated by the exercise of the power of the learned Circuit Court Judge to grant the Plaintiff/Respondent’s application for summary judgment against the Defendant/Appellant. In this appeal the parties will be referred to by their designation at the court below.

In a writ issued on the 28th of September, 2018, the Plaintiff sought the following reliefs which became the subject of the grant of summary judgment as follows:

a. An order directed at Defendant, his workmen, servants, assigns and/or subject to vacate Plaintiff’s land forthwith and surrender same to Plaintiff.

b. An order directed at the Defendant, his workmen, servants, assigns and/or subject to stop operating washing of vehicles on Plaintiff’s land forthwith.

c. Rent arrears at the prevailing price of Gh₵200.00 per month from 1st August, 2018 till date that Defendant shall vacate from Plaintiff’s land

d. Cost including legal cost

e. Any further order or orders as the court may deem fit.

Plaintiff asserted beneficial ownership of a piece of land numbered H/No 861/30, North-Abeka Accra in his statement of claim that by an agreement he entered into with the Defendant in January, 2009, part of the land was leased to the Defendant for the operation of a washing bay. That the duration of the lease was for ten years commencing in August, 2008. Plaintiff claimed that he gave six months’ notice to Defendant to vacate the land in January 2018 by informing Defendant of his inability to renew the lease upon its expiration. That the resistance of his attempt to peacefully enter into possession of the land compelled him to issue the writ.

Whiles conceding that he took a ten-year lease from the Plaintiff in 2008 for the purpose of a washing bay, Defendant contended in his statement of defence that he subsequently discovered that the land did not belong to Plaintiff as he was confronted by chiefs of