MUSTAPHA KOLNABA vs. SAMUEL DOKU AND MADAM PATIENCE DOKU [2012]DLCA6538

Date	2012-05-10
Suit No.	CIVIL APPEAL NO. H1/4/12
Citation No.	[2012]DLCA6538

KANYOKE J.A. (PRESIDING)

OFOE J.A.

ADJEI J.A.

MR. SAM KYERE FOR APPLICANT/APPELLANT

MR. MOHAMMED ATTAH FOR PLAINTIFF/RESPONDENT

[2012]DLCA6538
																																						<div class="restriction-wrapper">
														<div class="container-lg">
															<div class="row">
																<div class="col-md-12 restricted-content">
																	<div class="restricted-content-img-wrapper">
																		<div class="lock-icon bounce-7">
																			<img class=""
																				src="https://www.dennislawgh.com/dl-assets/dl-images/lock-content.png"
																				alt="Subscription based content">
																		</div>
																	</div>
																	 
																		<a href="https://www.dennislawgh.com/login"
																		class="btn btn-primary btn-lg"
																		style="font-family: 'open sans'; text-transform: capitalize; border-radius: 8px"> 
																		Login to Read Full Case </a>
																	 
																	
																</div>
															</div>
														</div>
													</div>
													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >MUSTAPHA
KOLNABA<o:p></o:p>(PLAINTIFF/RESPONDENT)<o:p></o:p>vs.<o:p></o:p>SAMUEL DOKU
AND MADAM PATIENCE DOKU<o:p></o:p>(DEFENDANT/JUDGMENT/DEBTOR/
APPLICANT/APPELLANT)<o:p></o:p>[COURT OF APPEAL, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:115%;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">CIVIL
APPEAL NO. H1/4/12&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;DATE: 10TH MAY, 2012<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:
<o:p></o:p>MR. SAM KYERE FOR APPLICANT/APPELLANT <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:
justify;line-height:115%;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">MR. MOHAMMED ATTAH FOR
PLAINTIFF/RESPONDENT <o:p></o:p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
115%;mso-outline-level:1;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">KANYOKE, J.A. (PRESIDING)
OFOE, J.A. AND ADJEI, J.A.<o:p></o:p>

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

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center;line-height:115%;mso-outline-level:1;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext 1.5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">JUDGMENT<o:p></o:p>

</div>KANYOKE, J.A. <o:p></o:p>This
appeal which has emanated from the ruling of the Circuit Judge at Ashaiman
Circuit Court reveals a clear case of a fraudulent breach of trust resulting in
an unfortunate and a very serious and damaging miscarriage of justice to the
applicant/appellant herein. For the purposes of this judgment, I shall retain
the positions of the plaintiff/respondent and defendant/ respondent as
plaintiff and defendant respectively. The applicant /appellant will also be
referred to simply as the appellant. <o:p></o:p>The
facts of this case as contained in the Record of Appeal (ROA) are these: <o:p></o:p>The
appellant and the defendant are relatives; being a sister and a brother
respectively. The appellant who was originally living at Ashaiman, acquired a
house there in which she and the defendant lived. Later, the appellant became
the queen mother of her town — Asutsuare, so she had to move to Asutsuare to
live there and therefore handed over the house to her brother the defendant as
a caretaker. Subsequently, without the knowledge and consent of the appellant,
the defendant sold the house to the plaintiff on 24/11/2008 for the sum of Five
Thousand Ghana Cedis (Gh¢5,000.00). The plaintiff made a part-payment of
Gh¢2,500.00 of the purchase price of the house to the defendant. The plaintiff
was given up to the 25th December, 2008 to pay the balance of Gh¢2,500.00. When
the plaintiff went to the defendant on 25/12/08 to pay the balance of the
purchase price of the house to him the defendant refused to accept same and
also declined to release the documents on the house to the plaintiff. That
prompted the plaintiff to issue a writ of summons on the 9th January, 2009 at
the Circuit Court, Ashaiman, seeking against the defendant — <o:p></o:p>“an
order for specific performance from this honourable court, to compel the
defendant to accept the outstanding balance of Gh¢2,500.00… and vacate the said
premises and release the documents of the house.” <o:p></o:p>Although
the defendant was served with the writ of summons and accompanying statement of
claim he refused or failed to enter appearance to the writ. Consequently on
20th January, 2009 the plaintiff filed a motion ex-parte at the Circuit Court
for judgment in default of appearance. On 23-01-2009, the trial Circuit Judge
surprisingly proceeded to hear this ex-parte motion and thereafter to enter a
judgment in default of appearance in favour of the plaintiff for the reliefs
claimed in the writ of summons. He also ordered the plaintiff to pay the
balance of the purchase price of the house into court. When the appellant became
aware of all these processes concerning her house, she ill advisedly filed a
motion on notice at the same Circuit Court for an order setting aside the
default judgment. On 7th August, 2009 the trial Circuit Judge gave his ruling
dismissing the appellant’s motion for the reason that since the appellant was a
stranger to the default judgment she lacked the capacity to seek to set aside
the default judgment as she had failed to bring herself within any one of the
circumstances in which a stranger to a judgment can adopt to set aside that
judgment as stated in the case of Lamptey v. Hammond (1987-88) 1 G.L.R. 327,
C.A. That ruling is the subject-matter of this appeal. These are the bizarre
facts and circumstances of this case. <o:p></o:p>I
shall preface my judgment with the remark that the appellant, in my opinion has
had an unfortunate and very regrettable raw deal in this case. If this court
had been properly and jurisdictionally seized with the appeal in this case, we
would have had no hesitation whatsoever in peremptorily allowing the appeal as
well grounded and meritorious indeed. But it is very unfortunate that this
court is not properly clothed with jurisdiction to deal with the appeal on its
merits and I will soon show why. However, I shall proceed to make some remarks
about the procedural processes leading to the ruling of 7/08/2009. My first
remark is about the motion for default judgment which was made ex-parte. Order
19 rule 1(3) of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 (C.I. 47) provides
that: <o:p></o:p>