[1967]DLHC1446 • May 4, 1967 • High Court
ALLASAN KOTOKOLI vs. MORO HAUSA AND ANOTHER
The plaintiff sued the defendants jointly and severally for £G5,000 or N¢10,000 as damages for personal injuries sustained in a motor accident. He alleged that the first defendant, a driver employed by the second defendants, negligently caused him to fall from a timber truck on the Oda-Abenase road, resulting in the back nearside tyre running over his left leg and its eventual amputation. The central factual dispute was whether the plaintiff had been offered a lift by the first defendant or had boarded the truck without the driver’s knowledge. The court accepted the plaintiff’s version that he had been offered a lift, but found that he failed to prove the pleaded particulars of negligence. Portion of judgment: “On the evidence before me, I prefer to accept the story of the plaintiff that he was offered a lift by the first defendant...” and “the plaintiff fell from the timber truck and the back nearside tyre ran over his left leg... He was later transferred to the Military Hospital, Accra, where his left leg was amputated.”
read moreJUDGMENT OF EDUSEI J. In this action the plaintiff is claiming from the defendants jointly and severally £G5,000 or N¢10,000 damages for injuries sustained in a motor accident due to the negligence of the first defendant who was the driver and servant of the second defendants. The facts as revealed by the evidence are as follows: The first defendant was driving his timber truck registration No. WR 4019 on 5 September 1961 on the Oda-Abenase road. The plaintiff was walking along the same road to his farm when the first defendant pulled up by his side. The first defendant alighted from his truck and had a chat with the plaintiff for some few minutes. According to the first defendant he then went into his timber truck and drove off not knowing that the plaintiff had gone on to the truck. The plaintiff on the other hand stated that the first defendant, after their short conversation, offered him a lift on the timber truck which was going in the direction of his farm. On the ev.....