[1964]DLSC1885 • February 28, 1964 • Supreme Court •
C.F.A.O. vs. ARCHIBOLD
The plaintiff, a merchant and alleged author of twelve musical works, claimed copyright infringement against the defendant company for recording and selling gramophone records of these songs without his consent. The plaintiff asserted authorship and ownership of the copyright and sought damages and injunctions. The defendant denied the allegations and pleaded statute of limitations as a defense. Evidence revealed the plaintiff lacked intelligible musical notation for the compositions and that the defendant believed another individual to be the composer. The plaintiff delayed instituting legal action despite knowledge of the infringement.
read moreJUDGMENT OF ADUMUA-BOSSMAN J.S.C. This appeal is against a final judgment dated 17 June 1963, and a consequential interlocutory judgment dated 26 June 1963 by the High Court, Accra, whereby the court upheld the plaintiff’s claim for damages and other reliefs for infringement by the defendant company (hereinafter called the company) of the said plaintiff’s copyright in certain musical works or songs, twelve in number, the names or titles of which were set out in the statement of claim. The court made a finding that the company produced 5,000 records each of the twelve songs, i.e. a total of 60,000 records, and sold the same at three shillings each amounting to £G91,000, and it awarded that sum (£G9,000) as special damages, in addition to a sum of £G1,000 for general damages. The court further granted an order of perpetual injunction as claimed. The claim on the writ was in the following: “(a) The plaintiff’s claim is for £G5,000 [later amended to £G12,000] damages for in...