JUDGMENT
DR. DATE-BAH, JSC:
This is the unanimous judgment of the Court. On the fifteenth day of February 1999, the first and second plaintiffs brought action against the defendant in the High Court in Accra. The first plaintiff is a well-known insurance company in Ghana and the second plaintiff is a company incorporated in Ghana which has been, since 1994, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the first plaintiff. The defendant is a lawyer and businessman and a sub-lessor of premises in Accra in relation to which the present action has been brought. The claims endorsed on the plaintiffs’ writ of summons were:
i. “A declaration that the Plaintiffs are by law entitled to a renewal of the Sub-lease dated the 18th day of June, 1971 on its expiration on or about 31st day of May, 1996, and that the Defendant is legally bound to grant to the plaintiffs a renewal of the said Sub-lease.
ii. An order to compel the Defendant to execute in favour of the Plaintiffs a Sub-lease in the terms of the draft attac…