John Asamoah, NIB MD
The National Investment Bank (NIB) has won a $60 million landmark court case against Standard Bank Offshore Company (substituted by Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited).
Standard Bank Offshore had filed an application for review at the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the decision of a five-member panel, which dismissed a $60 million judgement debt against NIB.
But a seven-member panel of judges, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo, yesterday in a unanimous decision dismissed the application because it did not meet the requirement of an application for review per the procedures of the Supreme Court.
Other members of the panel included Justices William Atuguba, Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyira, Jones Dotse, K. AninYeboah and A.A. Benin.
The Supreme Court, in a ruling read by Justice Dotse, held that the Supreme Court was not an avenue for litigants to argue their case with the same facts as presented earlier.
The court said that lawyers for Standard Bank Offshore Company (substituted by Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited), during the review process, made the same arguments they had made before the ordinary bench (the five-member panel) which was against the procedures for the review process.
It held that the ordinary bench took time to address all the legal points raised and it was therefore pointless to raise them again.
The apex court declared that the applicants could not make sufficient legal points to show that the decision of the ordinary bench resulted in the miscarriage of justice as they alleged.
The court, after analyzing all the arguments raised by both lawyers, upheld the decision of the ordinary bench and dismissed the application for review.
The Accra High Court (Commercial Division) in February 2013, ordered NIB to pay the money to Standard Bank Offshore Company and the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in October 2013 following an appeal from NIB.
Not satisfied with the court ruling, NIB took the matter to the Supreme Court asking it to quash the decisions of the other two courts.
In a unanimous decision on June 21, 2017, the five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, held that both Standard Bank Offshore Company Limited and Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited had no capacity to initiate the action, which resulted in the $60 million judgement debt.
The court, therefore, nullified all proceedings in relation to the case at the High Court and the Court of Appeal, as well as the judgements given by the two courts.
It further granted cost of GH¢500,000 against Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited.
Standard Bank Offshore Company Limited, which was not satisfied with the decision of the five-member panel of the apex court, filed a review application, praying the court to overturn its decision.
Lawyer for the applicants, Nene Amegatcher, who moved the application, indicated that his clients did nothing wrong by not providing their names, especially when NIB did not raise any issues of capacity.
He said the court ought to do substantial justice in the matter, laying emphasis on the amount involved which he claimed the respondent (NIB) has not denied.
He said the fact that one’s capacity is being challenged does not mean that the person does not have any capacity.
He was of the opinion that the verdict of the apex court was contrary to its rulings in similar matters.
Counsel for NIB, Benson Nutsukpui, said he relied on all the processes filed in the case.
He said the applicants did not raise different arguments and prayed the Supreme Court not to go into the merits of the case because it lacked merit.
By Gibril Abdul Razak