Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Former Director of Ghana School of Law, George A.
Sarpong, has filed a suit at a commercial court in Accra seeking to commit the Chief
Executive of Silver Star Auto Limited for contempt.
The plaintiff has alleged that the head of the
company, Kalmoni Nouhad, had defied a Supreme Court order to deliver a brand
new Mercedes Benz (E Class) to him.
The case, which started in 2009, was filed for and
on behalf of the plaintiff by his solicitors, G.A. Sarpong & Co Limited with
Mr. Sarpong as the Managing Partner against Silver Star Auto Limited with Mr.
Nouhad as its Chief Executive Officer.
Genesis
According to the plaintiff, a brand new Mercedes
Benz (C-Class 180) it bought from the car dealer in 2007 had broken down
suddenly in May 2008 but was replaced with another E-Class with registration GN
2266 Y at the cost of 15,000 Euros which again broke down in December that same
year.
The plaintiff therefore claimed among others things,
a brand new E-Class as replacement or a refund of the purchase price of the
vehicle as well as compensation for loss of use of the vehicles and damages for
breach of condition/deceit.
Rebuttal
Silver Star Auto Limited in its amended statement of
defence filed on October 19, 2009 denied the plaintiff’s claims and insisted
that the cause of the accident was attributable to the May 20098 incident.
They argued that G.A. Sarpong & Co was not
entitled to any claim as endorsed in the Writ of Summons and had urged the
court to dismiss the plaintiff’s suit.
Court’s
decision
The Commercial Court after full trial held that G.A.
Sarpong & Co was entitled to a delivery of a brand new E-Class as
replacement for the damaged car but the court refused to grant the claim for
compensation for loss of use of the vehicles and damages for breach of
condition/deceit.
Not satisfied, Silver Star Auto Limited appealed against
the decision at the Court of Appeal and succeeded in getting the appellate
court to review the High Court’s decision by ordering the car dealer to only
replace the damaged engine for G.A. Sarpong & Co and not the whole car.
Final
decision
G.A. Sarpong & Co then headed to the Supreme
Court where a five-member panel presided over by Justice Julius Ansah ruled
that G.A. Sarpong & Co had been able to discharge the burden of proof that
the vehicle it bought from Silver Star Auto Limited has latent defects and
deserved to be replaced.
The panel which included Justices Rose Owusu, K.
Anin Yeboah, P. Baffoe Bonnie and J.B. Akamba, disagreed with the Court of
Appeal’s reversal of the High Court’s decision and ordered that the trial
judgement orders be maintained.
Contempt
application
However, the plaintiff in his application for
contempt filed on September 9, 2014 said that “upon an undertaking, personally
to executed by the respondent himself to unconditionally deliver to the
plaintiff a brand new, latest model of the Mercedes Benz 200 E Class should its
appeal fail, execution of the judgement was stayed.”
The plaintiff said when the Supreme Court gave
judgement in his favour, he filed notice of judgement after trial and duly
served the defendant adding “the defendant was served with the order for
delivery of vehicle on July 21, 2014 as confirmed by a search report.”
Non-compliance
The plaintiff said the defendant had till date
failed to comply with the order of the court although the defendant had the vehicle
in its possession.
“In total defiance of the orders of the court, the
defendant on August 27, 2014 paid into the court, GH¢157,440 in purported satisfaction
of of the order.”
The plaintiff insisted that the order of the court
was not for the defendant to pay money but for the delivery of brand new latest
model of Mercedes Benz 200 E Class and added that the said payment “is a clear
manifestation of the respondent’s disregard for the express orders of the court
and his fortitude not to obey the court’s order.
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