Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The Court
of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed to prevent Council of State member Opanin
Abraham Kwaku Adusei and four others from using the name of the Saviour Church
of Ghana for their church activities.
A faction
in the protracted Saviour Church of Ghana dispute stated that it has exclusive
right to the use of the name ‘Saviour Church of Ghana’ when it comes to the
running of the church but a three-member panel, presided over by Justice (Mrs.)
Henrietta Abban, dismissed the suit and awarded GH¢10,000 against the
appellant.
The
appellant Elias Asante Asirifi and two others in a statement of claim insisted that
the church since
2007 has been incorporated as Saviour Church of Ghana but the court said there
was evidence that the church had been in existence since 1924.
Appellant’s argument
The
plaintiff/appellants indicated that the Opanin Adusei’s group is not a
religious body and cannot function in that capacity because it is the only
legal entity recognized by the laws of Ghana to run churches.
The
appellants insisted that the respondents exceeded their legal mandate and had
used the name of the church for activities contrary to the law.
Counsel
for the appellants argued among other things that the trial court (High Court)
should have considered the registration of the appellant to run churches and do
religious activities as compared with the respondent that had not been
registered for that purpose.
Reply from respondents
However,
Opanin Adusei’s group countered the action with conditional appearance and an
application to strike out the action on the grounds that Saviour Church of
Ghana was established in 1924 as a church and that there had been a spate of
suits over the leadership of the church involving Elias Asirifi Asante and
others, which had been settled by a High Court judgement in 2003.
The
respondents said the appellants seceded from the church and were restrained
from worshiping in all places belonging to the church.
They
further said that all appeals against the judgement in question had been
dismissed and therefore, the appellants were stopped from re-litigating the
issue, saying “it was fraudulent for the appellants to register the church since
those who did the registration had been convicted for contempt.”
The
respondents argued that the ruling of the trial court was supported by the law,
facts and evidence and drew the court’s attention to the fact that the
appellants ‘surreptitiously’ registered the name Saviour Church of Ghana after
losing the original cases at the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Judgement
In the
judgement, the Court of Appeal Panel, which also had Justices J.A. Acquaye and
Gertrude Torkornoo made it clear that there were “a plethora of previous
actions and judgements” from the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court
on contentions in the case and that the High Court had refused to strike out
the action on the grounds that the application had been made prematurely and
before the filing of a defence.
The court
said “because of state of the law and the history of the parties as stated, we
agree with the learned trial judge for refusing to grant the application appeal
against. The appeal is dismissed wholly.”
“The appellants’ fundamental premise for
pursuing a perceived right to the exclusive use of the name ‘Saviour Church of
Ghana’ is the registration of the name as a guarantee company authorized to run
churches. It is in this registration and its legal import of statutory authorization,
which it urges that the trial court disregarded.”
The court
said the right to use a name is not protected simply because it is adopted for
a particular object of activity and it is registered first. They are protected
only if it has protectable interest in the identity associated with the name.
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