Kumasi High Court annuals $15.3m galamsey judgment against gov’t

A Kumasi High Court has set aside its own judgement of July 30, 2020 against the government of Ghana.

The Court on Friday, July 30, exactly a year after the judgement, held that a superior court indeed has inherent jurisdiction to set aside its own judgement when same was plainly entered without jurisdiction or is offensive to any provision of the laws of Ghana.

On July 30, 2020, His Lordship Justice Samuel Diawuo slapped a $15.3 million judgement against the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for the unlawful seizure of machinery, equipment and monies belonging to mining firm Heritage Imperial Company by an Inter-Ministerial Committee Against Illegal Mining.

Justice Diawuo ordered the recovery of the sum of $15,304,714.20 as being the value of the machinery and equipment seized by the taskforce in 2018.

General damages of GH¢500,000 and a cost of GH¢100,000 were also awarded against the state.

However, government represented by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, on Tuesday, July 13 filed an application for the judgement to be set aside.

He argued that the plaintiff’s action was without regard to the mandatory statutory stipulations of the State Proceedings Act, 1998 (Act 555) and so unlawful.

He further argued that the payment of $15.3 was manifestly unlawful and without basis as no endorsement on the writ of summons issued in action supported same.

He said the plaintiff also failed to indicate whether the claims against the defendants were either jointly and severally or jointly or severally.

In pronouncing judgement, it was held that to the extent that High Court had no jurisdiction to consider the claim before it, the judgment of July 30, 2020 was a nullity and would be set aside.

Source: 3news.com