Midland Savings Sued

An Accra High Court (Human Rights Division), is expected to deliver judgement in a case in which an Accra-based businessman has filed a suit against Midland Savings & Loans Limited for allegedly locking up his premises and putting him out of business. The businessman, suing on behalf of his company, Crystal Holdings, wants the High Court to compel Midlands Savings & Loans, together with its Trade Fair, La, Branch Manager, one Mr. Tagoe, to unlock the Plaintiffs� house to enable him have access to the premises. The Plaintiffs also want the court to slap GH�1 million as damages on the Defendants as well as a perpetual injunction restraining them and their assigns from �entering or in any manner interfering with the 1st Defendant�s possessory right of his house and other forms of harassment.� Filing Process According to the Plaintiffs, they filed the suit through their counsel, Issah Adam, on November 26, 2013, and the defendants entered conditional appearance on December 4, 2013, through their counsel, Minkah-Premo & Co. However, the Plaintiffs said their search at the court�s registry showed that the Defendants never filed any statement of defence and therefore they (Plaintiffs) went ahead to file motion on notice for judgement in default of defence, and the court is expected to deliver the verdict today. Facts of the case According to the Plaintiffs, they entered into a mutual agreement with Midland Savings & Loans Limited for which Mr. Kissi took a loan of GH�300,000 on May 4, 2012, and which loan Crystal Holdings used to buy items and gave to government workers on a hire purchase basis. According to the Plaintiffs, the particulars of the government workers were sent to the Controller and Accountant General�s Department for monthly deductions from their salaries over a period of three years. They averred that the deductions were paid into a designated code-account belonging to Midland Savings & Loans Limited and it was expected that within the three years, the loan would have been redeemed together with interest by May 4, 2015. �By mutual agreement, the 2nd Plaintiff was to compile the list of names of government workers who have bought items from it on hire purchase and the list was sent to the Controller and Accountant General�s Department for the monthly deductions to be done.� The Plaintiffs said that consequently, the 2nd defendant compiled a list of 220 workers in October 2013 for which an amount of GH�1,100,142.00 was deducted from their salaries and paid into the code-account of Midland Savings & Loans Limited. �Despite these computations as per the agreement, the Defendants have not been able to tell the plaintiffs, how much money has been paid into the 1st Defendant�s code-account by the Controller and Accountant General�s Department and how much the 2nd Plaintiff owes the 1st Defendant.� Harassment The Plaintiffs averred that on November 25, 2013, a group of men, led by one Eric Kwame Cosmos, who claimed to be acting on the orders of the Defendants, stormed the Plaintiffs� house and locked up the premises with padlocks before whisking away the watchman who was released after the case had been reported to the police. Plaintiffs claimed that the men had said they (Plaintiffs) owed the Defendants and that was the only way they could retrieve the money for Midland Savings & Loans Limited. The Plaintiffs insisted that they did not owe the defendants and that Crystal Holdings did not even know whether or not it owed and that �even if it owed, it does not know how much.� �The act of the Defendants locking out the 1st Plaintiffs from their house, which is not even subject to the collateral of the loan taken by 2nd Plaintiff, is subversive of the rule of law and an infringement on the human rights of the 1st Plaintiff and his security man, who is not even a party to any contract or agreement with the defendants.�