NATIONAL SAVINGS AND CREDIT BANK vs. MENSAH

JUDGMENT OF OSEI-HWERE J.A. On or about 1 April 1978 the defendants accepted the plaintiff’s goods comprising eighteen cartons metallic ribbons and 1661⁄2 sets of grinding machines which they housed for the plaintiff for reward. The total value of these goods, when they were first delivered to the defendants, was fixed at ¢1,988,320. The defendants took out an insurance policy against the risk of destruction by fire of goods kept in their warehouse (including the plaintiff’s goods) with the declared value of over ¢5 million. The plaintiff was charged with the cost of the service which comprised the interest and insurance for the said goods as well as the rent for warehousing the goods. The only reward to the defendants was, accordingly, derived from the rent. There was a fire outbreak in the defendants’ warehouse on 5 June 1979, a day after the military uprising, which consumed most of the goods stored there. Only 100 of the plaintiff’s set of grinding machines w...