AMOAKOH
V.
HANSEN

TAYLOR J.S.C.: This is an appeal lodged by a defendant in a High Court action from the judgment of the then Chief Justice, sitting on 22 December 1983 as an additional judge of the High Court, Accra. The facts of the case and the rival averments of the parties at the trial pertaining to the substantive matters in controversy in the suit are quite irrelevant as far as the legal questions posed by this appeal are concerned. It is actually the procedural steps indulged in at the High Court from the institution of the proceedings to its commencement in the absence of the appellant right through to judgment and after trial that are rather the gravamen of the complaints of the appellant. These steps in the proceedings have been subjected to devastating criticism by learned counsel for the appellant in arguments which in my opinion deserve the utmost consideration in view of the fact that the trial was conducted before an unquestionably experienced and able legal personage as the then Chief …