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Ghana: After 15 Yrs of Protracted Traffic Accident Litigation - Justice at Last
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Accra Mail (Accra)
15 May 2008
Posted to the web 15 May 2008
Atiku Iddrisu
Accra
The 72 year old man who petitioned the Chief Justice recently (ADM, Thursday April 17 2008) over how Ghana's legal system was used to abuse his human rights in a classic case of "justice delayed is justice denied" has at last had his case resolved.
Mr. Augustine Manu, the victim of the system is full of praise for Chief Justice Georgina Wood and the current administrators of the country's Judicial Service for their swift response to his petition.
He was involved in a protracted litigation with the wife of Mr. Adumua-Bossman, one of Ghana's top lawyers whose car drove into his mini bus and damaged it beyond repair since 1992. The Adumua-Bossmans used every trick in the book to thwart Mr. Manu's attempt to seek justice in the courts.
His tenacity, determination and belief in the rule of law kept Mr. Manu going up and down the corridors of the judicial system for over 15 years, five judges and several adjournments. He was left with no option than call for the intervention of the Chief Justice. Last month ADM took up his case in a lead story that asked whether the law was really an ass!
After being ruled against by a High Court in Accra in November 2000 to pay damages of ¢34,413, 500 with 30% interest, Elizabeth Naa Yarley Bossman, wife of ace lawyer W.A.N Adumua-Bossman used all the "tricks" available in law to subject Mr. Manu to the pains of "justice delayed is justice denied".
Mr. Adumua-Bossman is a very senior and highly respected lawyer and used his deep knowledge of the law to stall a case that should have been resolved within a few weeks at the least or a couple of months at the most, and not the decade and a half that it has taken.
The first judgment, which is yet to be executed, was given 8 years after protracted litigation involving over 80 adjournments and 5 reputable judges of the country's courts. The adjournments have since exceeded 100. In the 15 years of the case - a common traffic accident - the big lawyer's wife employed delay tactics to frustrate the senior citizen from executing judgments given in his favour at all levels of the judicial process. The latest was the filing of two civil motions by the defendants, after an Accra High Court, on July 26th 2007, gave ruling in favour of Mr. Manu and ordered that Mrs. Adumua-Bossman's house and other assets to be confiscated if she failed to settle the cost awarded against her.
Mr. Manu, who believed the two civil motions H3/408/2007 and H3/565/2007 were filed by the defendants to frustrate him from the smooth execution of judgement given in his favour, petitioned the Chief Justice to "see to it that the motions are moved and determined with fairness and justice as soon as possible".
Through what Mr. Manu believed as the Chief Justice's swift response, the said motions were determined by the Appeals Court on 29th April, 2008. Both motions were struck out and costs awarded against the applicants. Mr. Manu told the ADM that his counsel has filed a notice to continue with the execution of the substantive judgments against Mrs. Adumua-Bossman. He expressed the hope that he would eventually see justice done to his case and "my case would prove that all citizens are truly equal before the law".
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Mrs Bossman has to cough out nearly 1billion old cedis from an original liability of only a little over two million old cedis. At the time of writing, ADM was receiving information that the Adumua-Bissmans were still looking for loop holes to exploit to stall further the Court of Appeal's ruling in favour of Mr. Manu.
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