YAW vs. COBBINA AND OTHERS [1962]DLHC1755

Date	1962-01-31
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1962]DLHC1755

DJABANOR J.

D.K. AFREH FOR OWUSU YAW FOR THE PLAINTIFF.

[1962]DLHC1755
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" ><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#548DD4">YAW <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#548DD4">vs. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#548DD4">COBBINA AND OTHERS <o:p></o:p>[HIGH COURT, KUMASI]<o:p></o:p>[1962] 1 GLR 40<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid black 1.5pt;
padding:31.0pt 31.0pt 1.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">

DATE:<span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#00B0F0"> 31ST JANUARY, 1962.<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid black 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

D.K.
AFREH FOR OWUSU YAW FOR THE PLAINTIFF.<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM: <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid black 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

DJABANOR J.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF
DJABANOR J.<o:p></o:p>By his writ of summons the plaintiff claimed from the defendants
jointly and severally £G5,000 damages for unlawful arrest and false
imprisonment. The brief facts of the case are as follows. The plaintiff was
until late in 1958 the chief of Yamfo - a town about thirteen or fourteen miles
from Sunyani. During the latter part of that year destoolment charges were
preferred against him and by notice published in the Gazette of the 8th
November, 1958, he was declared destooled with effect from 26th August, 1958.
Subsequent to this notice, the Yamfo Stool Property Order was published in the
Gazette Supplement dated the 13th December, 1958, authorising the newly
enstooled chief of Yamfo Nana Boama II, to seize, take possession and make an
inventory of the stool property pertaining to the Yamfo stool and to eject the
occupants of any land or buildings forming part of such stool property. As a
result of this order, which the plaintiff claimed not to be aware of, Nana
Boama II ejected the plaintiff’s caretakers from and seized the plaintiff’s
farm, claiming the same to be stool property. The plaintiff, therefore, made a
complaint to the police at Kumasi. Later, on the 18th December, 1958, he
proceeded to Sunyani to prosecute his complaint when, as he alleged, he was surrounded
by the police, manhandled and forced into a police vehicle and taken to Yamfo,
and there forced to surrender the stool property to Nana Boama II. At Yamfo he
alleges that he was again manhandled and pushed about and detained in the
Ahenfie for the duration of the handing over. When, at the end of the day, he
had not completed the handing over, he was again forcibly put on a police
vehicle and taken to Sunyani police station where he slept the night on a hard
bench in the police charge office. He was released the next day after
completing the handing over at Yamfo. He claimed that from the time he arrived
at the police station at Sunyani and was surrounded to the next day when he was
released after completing the handing over of the properties he had been under
unlawful arrest and imprisonment.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>In his detailed statement of claim, however, the plaintiff claimed
in addition to what he claimed in his writ, the return of a car No. AS 4007 or
its value estimated at £G400. He alleged that while he was at Sunyani the
defendants forced his driver, one Banda, to surrender the car to them which
they impounded and gave to one Nana Kofi Boama II. Apart from the fact that
this claim is wrong by reason of misjoinder, there is in fact no admissible
evidence in support of it. The plaintiff himself was not present when the car
was handed over by his driver and the driver did not give evidence. At the
material time the car was in the possession of Boama II, who had seized it as
stool property. If the plaintiff had any claim it should be against Boama II.
That claim therefore cannot succeed.<o:p></o:p>In support of his claim for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment
the plaintiff pleaded these paragraphs:<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">“5. On or about Thursday the 18th day of December 1958, plaintiff,
at the invitation of the defendants, visited the Ghana Police Station at
Sunyani in connection with a complaint of stealing previously made by the
plaintiff against the aforementioned Kofi Boama II. Plaintiff arrived at the
said Police Station at about 8 o’clock in the morning. <o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">7. Defendants thereupon unlawfully, illegally and wrongfully
arrested plaintiff, and by causing plaintiff to be surrounded by about thirty
Ghana policemen in the courtyard of the said Police Station, deprived plaintiff
of his liberty of movement save in a direction ordered by defendants.<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">8. Defendants then forced plaintiff into a police vehicle driven
by a policeman and carrying other policemen, and conveyed plaintiff, in a
convoy of three police vehicles carrying policemen armed with rifles and
batons, to Yamfo. <o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">9. At Yamfo plaintiff was ordered by defendants to surrender and
hand over the stool property of Yamfo to them defendants, presumably in
execution of the aforementioned Gazette Order. <o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">11. In the evening of the said Thursday plaintiff was escorted
back to Sunyani Police Station by defendants in the same style as that in which
he had been escorted thence, but accompanied by one Kwame Adwabo, who was
arrested by defendant in Yamfo, a</main>