[1976]DLCA357 • April 5, 1976 • Court of Appeal
ARMON AND ANOTHER vs. KATZ
On 26 February 1967, the plaintiff (respondent) was injured when a car driven by the first appellant (infant) and owned by the second appellant (his father) went into a ditch on the Weija-Accra road. Both the plaintiff and first appellant were infants under Ghanaian law. The plaintiff sued for damages alleging negligence by the first appellant, who was described as servant/agent of the second appellant. The second appellant was the First Secretary of the Embassy of Israel, and the infant defendant was his son. The defendants claimed diplomatic immunity from the jurisdiction of Ghanaian courts.
read moreJUDGMENT OF APALOO J.A. This appeal raises the somewhat novel but interesting questions as to what legal privileges diplomatic agents enjoy in this country and how their immunity from the domestic jurisdiction of our courts is proved. But before entering into an examination of these questions, it is well to relate the facts. On 26 February 1967, the respondent who I shall hereinafter call the plaintiff, rode in a car driven by the first appellant (hereinafter called the first defendant). This car belonged to the second appellant (hereinafter referred to as the second defendant). The latter is the father of the first defendant. At a point along the Weija-Accra road, that car went into ditch and the plaintiff suffered injuries. Both the plaintiff and the first defendant are infants according to the laws of this country. The plaintiff was then seventeen-and-a-half years of age and the first defendant was half-a-year her senior, he being eighteen years old. On 18 May 196...