ADISI vs. CONSTRUCTION & FURNITURE CO. (W.A.) LTD. OF ACCRA

JUDGMENT OF CRABBE J.S.C. This is an appeal from a refusal of Ollennu J. (as he then was) sitting in the High Court, Accra, to set aside an award of J. S. Manyo-Plange, Esquire (sole arbitrator) dismissing the applicant’s claim against the defendants. The main grounds on which the applicant sought to impugn the award in the High Court were (1) misconduct on the part of the arbitrator and (2) error of law on the face of the award. The basis of the court’s jurisdiction to set aside awards of arbitrators is set out in a statement of Williams J. in Hodgkinson v. Fernie.1 He said: “The law has for many years been settled, and remains so at this day, that, where a cause or matters in difference are referred to an arbitrator, whether a lawyer or a layman, he is constituted the sole and final judge of all questions both of law and of fact . . . The only exceptions to that rule, are, cases where the award is the result of corruption or fraud, and one other, which, though ...