C.F.A.O. vs. ZACCA

The plaintiffs, C.F.A.O., had earlier sued S. Zacca in the High Court, Kumasi, for sums allegedly due under a hire-purchase transaction and for labour and materials supplied. On Zacca’s application, the present defendant was joined as a third party and counterclaimed for damages for the plaintiffs’ unlawful seizure of a tractor. The High Court gave judgment, after which both sides appealed to the then Court of Appeal. On 15 August 1969, the Court of Appeal dismissed the plaintiffs’ appeal and increased the damages awarded to Zacca by N¢49,600.00 with costs. The plaintiffs paid N¢30,000.00 as a deposit pending an intended review, but no review application had been filed before the 1969 Constitution came into force on 22 August 1969. After their later review application was dismissed in June 1970, and the defendant sought execution for the balance, the plaintiffs commenced the present action seeking a declaration that execution could not proceed until rules for civil appeals to the new Supreme Court were made, or alternatively that the defendant provide security, together with an injunction restraining execution. The court held that the plaintiffs had no right of appeal from the old Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court created by the 1969 Constitution, and therefore their action disclosed no reasonable cause of action. Portion of judgment: “I think the most important question for me to decide is whether the plaintiffs still have a right of appeal to the Supreme Court in respect of the judgment of the old Court of Appeal… The plaintiffs brought the present action on the presupposition that the new Supreme Court can entertain appeal from the old Court of Appeal.”