Appeal Court.
17 Dec., 1937. Appeal from
Provincial Commissioner's Court
exercising Appellate
Jurisdiction.
Claim
for damages for trespass.
The
plaintiffs sued before the
Tribunal of Krontihene, and
judgment went to the defendant.
They appealed to the Tribunal of
the Paramount Chief and the
Court was differently
constituted on the various
occasions it met. It dismissed
the appeal and the plaintiffs
appealed to the Provincial
Commissioner's Court, Eastern
Province, which also dismissed
the appeal. The plaintiffs
appealed therefrom to the Court.
Held: The
constitution of the Court of the
Paramount Chief having varied as
aforesaid, the proceedings
before it were a nullity, and it
is now ordered to rehear the
Appeal from the lower Court.
J. H. Coussey for
Appellants.
Ofei Awere for Respondents.
The following joint judgment was
delivered :-
KINGDON, C.J.,
NIGERIA, PETRIDES, C.J., GOLD
COAST, AND YATES, J.
In this case the first plaintiff
sued the defendant in the
Tribunal of Krontihene at
Akwapim claiming £25 damages for
trespass on his land. The second
plaintiff was subsequently
joined as co-plaintiff. The
Tribunal gave judgment against
the plaintiffs, who then
appealed to the Tribunal of the
Paramount Chief of Akwapim which
dismissed their appeal with
costs. They then appealed to the
Provincial Commissioner's
Court, Eastern Province, which
also dismissed their appeal with
costs. They now appeal to this
Court, and the first point they
take is that the proceedings
before the Paramount Chief's
Tribunal were irregular and
amount to a nullity because on
the various occasions on which
the case came before that
Tribunal, the Tribunal was
differently constituted, and
final judgment was given by a
Tribunal composed of members
some of whom had not been
present throughout. In view of
recent decisions of this Court,
the respondent is unable to
resist this contention, and we
uphold it. This is a very
flagrant instance of this
particular form of irregularity
as at some sittings some only of
the members are named, the list
ending with the words" and
others," whilst at the final
hearing the Krontihene himself,
from whose Court the appeal was
brought, was one of the members.
This of course violates the
fundamental principle that a man
should not sit on appeal from
his own judgment.
The appeal is
accordingly allowed, and it is
declared that the proceedings
before the Paramount Chief's
Tribunal are a nullity. The
judgment of that Tribunal
including the order as to costs is
set aside; so also is the judgment
of the Provincial Commissioner's
Court, including the order as to
costs. This leaves the position
that the appeal from the Tribunal
of Krontihene to the Paramount
Chief's Tribunal is still pending,
not having yet been heard by a
regularly constituted Tribunal. It
is accordingly ordered that the
Paramount Chief's Tribunal
do re-hear the appeal to it, being
careful to see that
there are no
irregularities in its
constitution.
As to costs,
since this is the first time the
point has been taken by the
appellants, it is just that they
should be deprived of their costs
in this Court. There will
accordingly be no order as to
costs in this Court. We see no
reason to deprive the respondent
of his costs in the Provincial
Commissioner s Court in which he
was successful on the points there
argued. He is accordingly awarded
costs in that Court to be taxed.
The costs in
the Paramount Chief's Tribunal,
both those already incurred and
those to be incurred at the new
hearing, will be in the discretion
of that Court in giving its
judgment at the new hearing.
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