ASHANTI GOLDFIELDS CORPORATION

JUDGMENT OF JIAGGE J.A. This was an appeal by the defendants (the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation) against the decision of the Circuit Court, Kumasi, delivered on 29 September 1972. The plaintiff was an employee of the defendant-corporation and claimed that on the day he was injured in an accident he stood at the head of a queue waiting to enter the cage to go down into the defendants’ goldmine at Obuasi where he worked as a truck boy. When the cage arrived, he was the first to enter but although the cage could take only eight people, the defendants negligently permitted thirteen others to enter after him. The cage was consequently over-loaded and during the descent, due to overcrowding, those in the cage struggled for space and as a result, he was pushed to the wall of the cage and sustained injuries. He had fracture of the left humerus and also suffered severe shock. The plaintiff depended on his allegation that the cage was overcrowded and that he sustained injuries when.....