Court To Decide On Areeba Application October 20

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, 01 August 2006.
The Commercial Court in Accra will on October 20 decide whether to strike out a writ of summons and service filed by Mr. Richmond Aggrey, a businessman who is claiming 20 percent shares in Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba GSM.

This follows an application filed by Scancom Ghana Ltd praying the court to set aside Mr. Aggrey’s writ "in part or whole" on the grounds that the plaintiff failed to adhere to procedures in filing the application.



Mr. Aggrey had filed a suit against Investcom LLC, Scancom Ghana Limited and Grandview Management Limited, and got a court order on July 14 to restrain the defendants from going ahead to conclude a merger agreement with MTN Company of South Africa.

He had claimed that "continuing, progressing and/or concluding a merger with and/or acquisition of Investcom LLC by MTN Company of South Africa without taking into account and or providing for the plaintiff’s 20 percent shares in Scancom Limited" will occasion the loss of his shareholding in the company by reason of the accrual of the rights of MTN Group as a third party.

Moving the motion, Benson Nutsukpui, counsel for Scancom Ghana Limited (Areeba) said, "the mandatory requirement of seeking leave to issue a writ was not complied with by the plaintiff.

"The plaintiff took out a writ of summons which is intended for service outside this jurisdiction and did not take leave of the court," he said adding, "Order Eight of the Civil Procedure Code provides the methods to seek leave of the court to serve a party".

He said the writ as it stood was a nullity and Scancon was enjoined by law to take steps to correct any defect as far as the suit was concerned, adding that the plaintiff could commence a new action but not in the current case.

William Fugah, representing Investcom LLC, said they had entered conditionally and were associating themselves with Areeba’s position.

He said that going by Order Two Rule Five, the plaintiff’s action "is totally void and must be dismissed" because he failed to take leave of the court before the service was effected outside the jurisdiction.

For his part, Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Grandview Management Ltd said: "We are not objecting to the writ on any grounds whatsoever," but "we have entered unconditional appearance in this suit."

Yonni Kulendi, counsel for Mr. Aggrey, opposed Scancom’s application, saying, "It will occasion delay, unnecessary expenses, and multiplicity of suits if we are to seek leave to initiate the process one by one".

He said the action was commenced against parties who are properly within the jurisdiction and that it was rather Investcom LLC which should have "cried over this" and not Areeba, because Areeba were not at present entitled to move the application to set aside the writ.

"To bring an application to set aside a writ in part or whole, the applicant must be able to show that he or she has not offended Order 81 Rule 2", adding, "the irregularity they are complaining about is not real in this case," he said.

Mr. Aggrey had sued Investcom LLC, the majority shareholder in Scancom Limited, and Grandview Management Limited following Scancom’s decision to engage in a merger deal with MTN Incorporated of South Africa.

The deal has, however, been concluded following the transfer of all shares in Scancom to the South Africa company.

Mr. Aggrey, in his substantive writ, was claiming against the defendants, jointly and severally, an order directed to Scancom Limited to pay him his true dividends declared from 2000 to the 2005 financial years.