A-G saves the day: No $28.5m judgment debt for Sweater and Socks

The Attorney General filed a motion on notice to set aside all the void orders of the High Court per Justice Elizabeth Ankamah in the case titled Sweater & Socks versus the Attorney General & seven others.

The application, which was argued by Mrs. Sylvia Adusu, Principal State Attorney, supported by Mrs Marietta Appiah-Opon, AG, was to the effect that all the orders made after Justice Henrietta Inkumsah-Abban’s judgment of 8th April, 2003 were void. The thrust of Mrs. Sylvia Adusu’s arguments were that these orders which gave the Plaintiff, Sweater and Socks, an award of US$28,598,000.00 were not a representation of the judgment of Justice Henrietta Inkumsah Abban. The said Judgment was simply for an order directed at the state to render accounts and could not give rise to a subsequent order to pay the Plaintiff an amount of US$28,598,000.

Justice Elizabeth Ankamah, whose attention was now being drawn to these state of affairs, agreed with the State and granted the Application in its entirety. After the ruling, George Eshun (Counsel for the Plaintiff, Sweater and Socks), Anna Pearl Akiwumi Siriboe (Principal State Attorney) and Veronica Adigbo (Assistant State Attorney) moved to High Court 22 where an application to commit the Governor of the Bank of Ghana for Contempt for not paying the sum of US$28,598,000.00 to the Plaintiff was pending.

Mr. Eshun informed the court that the application for contempt had been overtaken by events and therefore he unconditionally withdrew the said application for contempt. This frees the State from the burden of the payment of US$28,598,000.00 and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana from a possible prison sentence for contempt of court.

It will be recalled that, on the 13th day of March 2013, the State quickly filed these applications to prevent the payment of this sum of money which in the opinion of the Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, was completely unjustified.