OSEI-HWERE JSC: The plaintiff-respondents in the above consolidated suits will, for ease of reference, be described hereafter simply as the plaintiffs and the defendant-appellants as the defendants. The plaintiffs were the employees of the defendants. On 28 October 1980 they were suspended and by a note dated 12 November 1980 their appointments with the defendants were terminated with effect from 28 October 1980. They were said to have been dismissed summarily for their involvement in an alleged fraud case. They sued the defendants in the High Court, Accra and claimed damages for wrongful dismissal.
In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs averred that on their suspension they were handed over to the police for further investigation to be conducted into the alleged fraud. The gravamen of their complaint was that their dismissal was wrongful since it went contrary to article 34 (c) of the agreement between the defendants and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of the TUC whic…