Lawyer Bossman's spouse dodges court order

Accra (Gh) ? 22 Sept 2005 - After being ruled against by the High Court in Accra to pay damages worth ?34,413,500 with 30% interest, the wife of ace lawyer Adumua Bossman, Elizabeth Naa Yarley Bossman, has gone into hiding, preventing Mr. Augustine Manu, a Kumasi-based transport owner, and his counsel, M.K. Ampaw, from executing judgment. After 13 years of protracted litigation since 1992 amidst 85 adjournments through 5 reputable judges of the country's courts, 67-year old Mr. Manu, managed to win the legal battle against Mrs. Bossman, in a case in which his vehicle was damaged by that of Mrs. Bossman.

Though the court had ordered that her house and other assets be confiscated if she failed to settle the cost awarded against her, none of the properties presented to the court as assets have been located.

According to Mr. Manu, on one of such occasions to effect execution with a team of auctioneers to house number C148/21, it was discovered Mrs. Bossman had packed all her movable property, leaving a Benz saloon car with registration number AS 6512 G and a 14-inch television set.

Later, lawyer Adumoa Bossman himself came claiming ownership of the said properties, saying they were not for his wife.

On the day in question, one Bismark Adjei, a driver of Mrs. Bossman's Nissan Atlas pick- up vehicle with registration number AFA 2795, who was traveling on the Accra- Nsawam road, in overtaking a vehicle and drove into Mr. Manu's Nissan urvan commercial vehicle, which was traveling in the opposite direction, crashed into the vehicle, causing serious damage to it.

Subsequently, the case was reported to the police who in turn arraigned Adjei, Mrs. Bossman's driver before the Cocoa Affairs court of Accra on November 16,1992 on a charge of careless driving. He was convicted and sentenced upon pleading guilty to the charge.

After the police submitted its report and claims for damages to the Great African Insurance Company, insurers of Mrs. Bossman's car, the company inspected and assessed the cost on the damaged car after which it paid a paltry ?100,000 to Mr. Manu.

Later, the company instructed Mrs. Bossman to pay Mr. Manu the remaining balance of ?2,322,500 as limit liability, but she failed to do so.

On the advice of the insurance company, Mr Manu took the case to the high court on January 21,1993 in a civil suit, in the course of which trial, the docket for the case got lost on six different occasions.

After going through the hands of four different judges, the case was finally heard on November 7, 2000 by Nana Gyamera Tawia, who ruled in Mr. Manu's favour.

The court therefore ordered Mrs. Bossman to pay a total of ?34,413,000 representing damages for loss of use of the vehicle and the total cost awarded prior to judgment to Mr. Manu.

This prompted her husband, a learned lawyer to file a "notice of appeal and motion for stay of execution" but again the court on June 26, 2001 ruled and ordered Mrs. Bossman to pay the amount into its chest by July 31, 2001, to be kept in government security and later pursue the appeal.

Undeterred by her losing the appeal, Mrs Bossman failed to pay the amount to the court as ordered and instead filed another motion for stay of execution at the appeals court.

Again, on July 12, 2004 the Appeal Court struck out the case "for want of prosecution".

Since May, 12, 2005, when counsel for Mr. Manu, M. K. Ampaw filed documents at the registry of the high court to go for execution of judgment, Mrs. Bossman has neither been sighted, nor has any of her properties been accessed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Manu has hinted the paper that after a thorough search at the various offices of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), Land Registry, Town and Country Planning, Land Valuation and the Lands Commission, the house numbered C148/21, said to be situated at the Achimota forest area or Abelenkpe ? Accra could not be located, since the building is not in the records of any of the aforementioned institutions as owned by Mrs. Bossman.

Surprisingly, further checks at the City Engineers office at James Town in Accra proved that the site is an open space without any structure on it. Source: Ghanaian Chronicle