Supreme Court Suspends Woyome Property Case

Alfred Agbesi Woyome

THE SUPREME Court has indefinitely suspended all the cases in the inter-pleader proceedings before it regarding some properties allegedly owned by the beleaguered financier of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

Inter-pleader is a civil procedure that allows a plaintiff or a defendant to initiate a lawsuit in order to compel two or more other parties to litigate a dispute.

It normally originates when the plaintiff holds property on behalf of another, but does not know to whom the property should be transferred.

This follows an application for review filed by lawyers for the businessman whose properties the state intends to seize to defray the GH¢51.2 million he fraudulently received as judgment debt.

The court presided over by a single judge, Justice A. A. Benin arrived at the decision after counsel for Woyome, Petrina Defia, prayed the court to stay its proceedings pending the determination of an application for review of the judge’s decision.

The court was expected to give its judgment on the claims by defunct UT bank that the properties identified by the state as belonging to embattled businessman belong to the non-existent bank hence cannot be confiscated by the state.

But before the court could give its judgment, lawyer for Woyome managed to force the court to arrest the judgment, arguing that the review of his December 3, 2018 decision by a panel supersedes the judgment to determine who owns the properties identified by the state.

Objection

The Supreme Court presided over by Justice Benin on December 3 last year overruled an application by Woyome’s lawyers to have the ongoing legal proceedings at the apex court moved to a high court.

Lead counsel for Woyome, Osafo Buabeng, argued that hearing the case in the Supreme Court would deny the parties the right to appeal should they lose the case, although CI 47 makes provision for the right of appeal in execution processes.

He therefore prayed the court to move the case to the High Court, where the right to appeal in relation to execution process was guaranteed.

Deputy A-G, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, described Mr Buabeng’s objection as a red herring and urged the court to overrule it.

It was his contention that the current dispute in relation to the ownership of the properties emanated from a Supreme Court judgment in 2014 that ordered Mr. Woyome to refund a GH¢51.2 million judgment debt that was paid to him by the state because it was unconstitutional.

In view of that, he argued that the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to hear and determine any dispute that had arisen from its own judgment.

Justice Benin in his ruling held that it had the power to enforce its judgment and, therefore, surrendering its jurisdiction to the High Court would be unconstitutional.

According to him, although the Supreme Court had adopted CI 47 in enforcing its 2014 judgment, it did not mean the court had to act like a high court and allow the right of appeal.

The legal remedy available to any aggrieved party, the court held, was a review of its decision.

The decision did not go down well with the lawyers as they have filed an application for review of that decision.

In view of the application, Justice Benin yesterday suspended all proceedings indefinitely until the work of the review panel was done.

Identified properties

The state in its efforts to recover the GH?51.2 million the NDC financier fraudulently received as judgment debt, has identified five properties belonging to Woyome each worth about $1.5 million.

Moves by the state to confiscate the properties it has identified were truncated by claims that some of those properties were not his but rather belong to others.

The receiver of UT Bank, Eric Nana Nipa, in his witness statement to the apex court, claims the bank acquired the properties from Mr. Woyome on April 5, 2013 and May 13, 2014 respectively.

BY Gibril Abdul Razak

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