A High court in Accra (General Jurisdiction 7) has awarded a cost of GH750,000 against ABSA Bank Ghana Limited for defaming Mr Adri Hopson, a real estate developer.
In 2019, Mr Hopson, the plaintiff sold two separate two-bedroom houses to two employees of the Bank, Isaac Quao and Linda Mokeh.
The plaintiff had stated in his writ of summons filed by his lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo that he was subsequently invited by the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to respond to a complaint of fraud lodged against him by the Bank, the defendant, regarding his sale of encumbered properties to its two employees.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff had argued that the properties were not encumbered in any way, therefore, the act of the defendant in lodging a complaint against him was defamatory.
Mr Hopson contends that he was not involved in any contract or transaction with the defendant Bank.
In his judgement on May 22, the presiding judge, Justice Ali Baba Abature held that the complaint of defrauding by false pretences lodged against the plaintiff by the defendant Bank was defamatory as it was made out of malice without probable and reasonable cause, thereby harming the reputation of the plaintiff as a successful and respected. businessman.
Justice Abature stated that the two workers of the Bank were in occupation of the properties the plaintiff genuinely sold to them, with one of them admitting that she has registered her title to the property she purchased.
Consequently, the judge awarded GH300,000 in general damages to be paid to the plaintiff by the defendant, punitive damages of GH300,000, compensatory damages of GH150,000. and costs, including services cost of GH100,000 against defendant in favour of the plaintiff.
The defendant had told the court that the plaintiff mortgaged the properties he sold to its employees, but Nii Addo, counsel for the plaintiff averred that the
properties the defendant claimed were mortgaged by his client were not the properties sold to the two employees of the defendant.
It was the case of the plaintiff that he dealt with the defendant’s two employees in good faith and did not suppress any material fact from the employees and that malice occurred on the part of the defendant when the complaint of fraud was made to the police with intent to harm his image or reputation.
The defendant, on the other hand, denied all the averments of the plaintiff.
In its statement of defence, ABSA averred that the results of an initial search conducted by its Central Securities Unit (CSU) on the properties sold to its two employees by the plaintiff indicated that there were no encumbrances on the property before it accepted the mentioned employees’ application for a mortgage under its Bank Staff Mortgage Loan Policy.
However, the defendant stated that subsequent investigations at the time the said employees’ mortgage documents were submitted to the Land Title Division for registration of its interest in the properties by virtue of the mortgage loan it granted to the two employees for the purchase of the properties have revealed that the properties the plaintiff sold to its two employees were encumbered as a mortgage had already been registered on the said properties.
Consequently, the defendant’s mortgage interest charge in the two properties could not be registered thereby rendering the mortgage facility it granted to its two mentioned employees unsecure.
As a result, ABSA said its Fraud Risk Management and Investigations Unit was commissioned to conduct forensic investigations into the conduct of the plaintiff, and the investigation report revealed that that the Plaintiff had mortgaged certain properties including the two that Plaintiff sold to its employees to First Trust Savings and Loans for a loan facility.
Defendant therefore lodged a complaint with the Regional Crime Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to investigate the matter.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
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