WEST AFRICAN EXPRESS (GHANA) LTD. v. CRAIG

JUDGMENT OF ADUMUA-BOSSMAN J.S.C.

The appeal is from a decision of Apaloo J. delivered in the High Court, Kumasi, whereby the plaintiff-respondent's claim for the sum of £G889 8s. 3d. as amount due for services rendered under a contract of employment by the appellant company was upheld. The parties are hereinafter referred to simply as the plaintiff and the company respectively.

[p.232]

The learned trial judge in his usual graphic style has outlined the material facts and I do not think I can do better than adopt his statement of the facts, as follows:

"The plaintiff a married woman appearing to have considerable knowledge of running travel agencies was employed some time in 1957 by the defendant-company as manageress of their agency in Kumasi. It seems she was to do pioneering work, and there is no properly documented contract. She herself described the relationship as an association and in the nature of things it was a loose one. It was however agreed that she was to have for her services 50 per cent. of the commission income earned by the establishment after deduction of expenses. It seems that although she put in a lot of work, as can be gleaned from the pile of correspondence in evidence, by October 1959 she had received nothing by way of remuneration. While in a state of dissatisfaction with her service conditions, she received an offer of employment from another travel agency. By a letter dated the 22nd October, 1959, addressed to the Accra manager (exhibit A) she communicated the fact of this offer of employment from another company and threatened to terminate her association with the defendant-company unless by the 14th November, 1959, the company shall have offered her a new and more satisfactory agreement. There was no reply to that letter. Meanwhile, in the Accra office of the company, Mr. Indge, the managing director, proceeded on leave to England, whereupon Mr Nasar acted in his place. On the 9th November, 1959, the plaintiff addressed another letter to Mr. Nasar wherein she referred to her letter of the 22nd October and warned that if by the 14th November she does not receive a letter from the company offering to retain her services on better and more satisfactory terms, she would accept the offer of the other agency. It seems plain from subsequent events that she made no empty threat, for she closed the office on the morning of the 14th November, 1959.

About 11.30 that morning her husband (who gave evidence as her only witness at the