THE INDEPENDENT EXAMINATIONS COMMITTEE
GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
ENTRANCE EXAMINATION TO THE PROFESSIONAL LAW COURSE, 2018
DATE: FRIDAY 27 JULY 2018
TIME: 10.00 AM—12.00 PM
TIME ALLOWED: TWO (2) HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATS
- Read these instructions carefully before writing down your answers. Note carefully the Instructions relating to each section.
- Answer ALL the questions in Section A.
ANSWER QUESTION ONE AND ANY ONE OTHER QUESTION IN SECTION B.
- Do NOT write or sign your name anywhere on the Answer Booklet or Form.
- Indicate your Index Number Only on the answer booklets and shade your index number on the Shading Sheet supplied.
- shade your answers using the pencils provided for Section A.
- credit will be given for legible handwriting, clarity of expression and orderly presentation of answers
THIS QUESTION PAPER MUST NOT BE REMOVED FROM THE EXAMINATION HALL SECTION A: INSTRUCTIONS
ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN THIS SECTION BY SHADING THE CORRECT ANSWER ON THE SHEET SUPPLIED.CANDIDATES WHO SHADE MORE THAN ONE ANSWER OR DO NOT SHADE ANY ANSWER WILL NOT RECEIVE A MARK FOR THAT QUESTION.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHADING YOUR INDEX NUMBER ON THE SHADING SHEET
1 leave out the letters from your index number (i.e..,IEC/EE)
2 you will only need to shade the numerical part of your index number on the shading sheet (e.g., 2018001).
3 please shade your index number and precede with two zeros “00”. For example if your index number is IEC/EE/2018/0001, please shade the following number on the answer sheet ”002018001”
SECTION A
Q1 in exercising his prerogative of mercy, the president acts:
(a) Oh the advice of the Cabinet
(b) In consultation with Parliament
(c) In consultation with the Prisons Service Council
(d) In consultation with the Council of State.
Q2 Contracts which cannot be made orally and requires writing in the Contracts Act, 1962 (Act 25) include:
(a) Guarantee, credit or character of third parties and sale of goods
(b) Guarantee, land and credit and character of third parties to acquire goods or credit
(c) Guarantee, land purchase and loan
(d) Guarantee, sale of Goods and land purchase.
Q3 Under what conditions may a person be exempted from criminal liability?
(a) Insanity, alibi, mistake and drunkenness
(b) Intoxication, alibi, infancy and apology
(c) Infancy, insanity, mistake and apology
(d) Insanity, infancy, intoxication and mistake.
Q4 It has been suggested that “the judiciary has the function of acting as the officially constituted representative of the collective conscience of society and it is desirable that, if only in exceptional cases, they shall have the power to declare certain actions criminal”. Choose from the following statements the demands which, in your view, the above suggestion runs counter to:
(a) Crimes ought to be dealt with expeditiously in order to preserve order in society
(b) Judges are appointed officials and are in practice not accountable to the electorates. Their function is to adjudicate and not to make laws
(c) As a result of long procedures they must pass through in Parliament before they become law, statutes are outpaced by emerging crimes
(d) The reality ought to be faced that all along, as they interpret and apply statutes, judges are making laws. This trend ought to be acknowledged and encouraged in this era of proliferation of crimes.
Q5 It stands to reason that an artificial legal personality cannot be convicted of certain offences owing to:
(a) The nature of the offence committed by the company
(b) The impossibility of executing that punishment
(c) The size of the company
The artificial nature of the entity.
Q6 Which of the following amounts to “dishonest appropriation”?
(a) If the appropriation is made with intent to defraud and without the owner’s consent.
(b) If the appropriation is made without a claim of right.
(c) If the appropriation is made with intent to defraud or by a person without claim of right with the knowledge or belief that it is without the consent of the owner or his trustee or if known to the owner or his trustee, but without his consent.
(d) If the appropriation is made with dishonest intentions, notwithstanding.
Q7 Is there any difference between assault and battery’? If yes, what is the difference and if no, what are they?
(a) No, there is no difference between the two. They all constitute physical attack on the person
of another
(b) Yes, there is a difference, assault is uttering insulting words against another whilst battery
constitutes a physical attack on another.
(c) Yes, there is a difference. Assault is issuing threats of violence and exhibiting an intention to execute the threat whilst battery is intentional application of force to another by direct means
(d) Yes there is a difference, assault is issuing threats of violence, exhibiting an intention to execute the threat coupled with the ability to carry the threat in to execution; whilst battery is a deliberate intentional or negligent act of a person resulting in a physical or violent contact with another without his consent.
Q8 Which of the following ingredients could secure a conviction of an accused on a charge of
murder?
(a) That someone is dead; ii. That he died from harm; iii. That the harm was caused by the accused and no one els£; and iv. That accused intentionally caused the harm
(b) That someone was dead; ii. That he died from harm; iii. That the harm was unlawful; iv. That the harm was caused by the accused and no one else; and v. that accused intentionally caused the harm
(c) That someone was missing after he went out with the accused; ii. That for over a year, he has not been seen so he is presumed dead; iii. That accused could not give any reasonable explanation as to why the person he went out with could not be traced; and iv. That it is the accused who killed the missing person
(d) That someone was dead; ii. That he died from harm; iii. That the harm was unlawful; iv. That it was accused who caused the harm; and v. that accused negligently caused the harm.
Q9 Which of the following, in your opinion, does not accurately state the exceptions to the common law liability of the common carrier? Answer by ticking one of the following.
(a) At common law, the common carrier is not liable for damage or losses not arising out of his negligence
(b) At common law, the common carrier is not liable for damage or losses arising from an act
of God ,
(c) At common law, the common carrier is not liable for damage or losses arising from acts of enemies of the state
(d) At common law, the common carrier is not liable for damage or losses arising from an inherent vice in the goods carried.
Q10 Which of the following is not true in respect of the determinable title which a stranger may
acquire by grant from a stool or subject of a stool?
(a) The determinable title which a stranger may acquire by grant from a stool or subject of a stool places him in almost the same position as the subject
(b) If a stranger who has acquired the determinable title abandons the land, or dies without any family to succeed, the land will revert to his grantor or to the grantor’s family
(c) The stool or subject of a stool who grants the determinable title to a stranger may alienate that land to any other person, subject or stranger without the consent of the stranger-grantee
(d) In respect of agricultural land as well as building land, the title of the stranger-grantee is limited to a well-defined area demarcated to him upon the grant.
Q11 “pledge is one form of alienation of land or interest in land. Its purpose essentially is not is
not so much to hold the pledged property as security, as to have its use as interest on the amount
borrowed or as mesne profit upon the article or goods lent on credit”. (Ollennu, principles of
Customary Law in Ghana.
Which of the statements below misrepresents the legal position about pledges?
(a) The pledgee who improves the pledged land does so at his own expense
(b) For any transaction to be a pledge, the pledgee must be placed in possession, occupation and control of the pledged land
(c) It is an incident of the pledge that the pledgee is absolutely entitled to enjoy all profits accruing from the pledged land, and is not accountable to the pledger
(d) A pledgee of land is entitled to sell the pledged land even without a court order.
Q12 To succeed in a defense of fair comment in a libel action, which of the following ingredients is the defendant not required to prove?
(a) The words are comments and not statements of fact
(b) The comment was made in the exercise of his right to freedom of speech
(c) There is a basis of fact for the comment contained or referred to in the matter complained of
(d)The comment is on a matter of public interest, one which has expressly or impliedly been put before the public for judgement or a matter in respect of which the public has a legitimate concern.
Q13 which of the following statements is not true about the Abusa tenancy?
(a) an Abusa tenant’s interest is the right to cultivate the land and to enjoy proceeds. He does
not acquire title or estate in any portion of the land
(b) the Abusa tenancy is not heritable
(c) an Abusa tenant has no right to alienate his holding without the knowledge of his landlord
(e) If Abusa tenancy is granted for the cultivation of permanent crops like cocoa, coffee and
coconut, the tenant owns the whole of the foodstuffs, which in the interim, he produces on
the land.
Q14 which of the following is not true of a bill of lading?
(a) A bill of lading is a receipt for the goods shipped
(b) A bill of lading is not a negotiable instrument
(c) A bill of lading constitutes a document of title to the particular goods to which they relate
(d) The transferee of a bill of lading acquires no better title than the preceding endorser or transferor.
Q15 which of the following does not hold true about family land in Ghana?
(a) If a member of a family is granted a portion of the general family land, the house which he builds on the land by his independent effort and his own individual means becomes his self-acquired property
(b) A building which an individual member of a family is permitted to erect on a family land, in use by the family is property in which the individual member who builds has a life interest only
(c) Where family property under pledge or mortgage is redeemed by a member of the family from his own resources, the redeemed property becomes the self-acquired property of the individual member
(d) Any property acquired by a person in his capacity as head of family is family property.
Q16 in one of the following situations, the tort of passing off cannot be said to have been
committed. Identify that situation.
(a) Where the defendant is marketing his products as that of the plaintiff
(b) Where the defendant, engaged in the same line of business as the plaintiff, is using a name similar to the plaintiffs in the conduct of his business
(c) Where the defendant is using the plaintiffs trade name to identify goods which he markets or services which he renders
(d) Where the defendant has adopted for his house a name similar to that of the plaintiff, his neighbor, and is thereby passing off his house as that of the plaintiff, much to the inconvenience of the plaintiff.
Q17 in your opinion, which of the following may not be said about negotiable instruments?
(a) Transfer of a negotiable instrument is effected by mere delivery, or by endorsement and delivery; no further formality is required
(b) Being negotiable instrument, postal orders may be transferred from one holder to another
(c) The holder of a negotiable instrument, being a holder in due course, holds the instrument free of prior equities
(d) The holder of a negotiable instrument may sue on the instrument in his own name.
Q18 Mr. Kofi Mensah applied for the position of the headmaster of the Future Leaders Senior High School. The Board of Directors of the school passed a resolution appointing Mr. Kofi Mensah to the position. The decision was however not officially communicated to him, even though he was unofficially informed of it by one of the Board Members. How will you advise Mr. Mensah if he consults you about a possible action against the school for not giving him the position? Confirm your preferred advice.
(a) Acceptance of an offer brings a contract in to being. And the offeree may indicate his acceptance by words or conduct. The fact of the present case shows that the Board of the school has, in response to Mr., Mensah’s application, passed a resolution appointing him as the headmaster of the school. This is an indication that Mr. Mensah’s offer has been accepted by the school. With Mr. Mensah getting to know about the acceptance of his offer, contract has come in to being and the school cannot refuse Mr. Mensah the position
(b) There was no acceptance of the offer because the Board Member who informed Mr. Mensah breached Board confidentiality rules
(c) Acceptance of an offer brings a contract in to being. And acceptance may be made through the words or conduct of the offeree or through someone authorized by him to do so. Indeed, the fact of the present case shows that the Board of the school had, in response to Mr. Mensah’s application, passed a resolution appointing him as a headmaster of the school. But as the facts show further, the Board member who informed Mr. Mensah about the decision had no authority to do so. No acceptance had therefore been communicated and there was no contract.
(d) Since the offer was not formally communicated in writing to Mr. Mensah, there was no acceptance.
Q19 it is said that a person commits trespass upon land if he intentionally or negligently enters or remains on, or directly causes a physical matter to come in to contact with land in the possession of another. This means that the owner of landed property who is not in physical possession because he has let the property out…
(a) cannot under any circumstance succeed in an action against a trespasser to the property
(b) May succeed in an action against a trespasser only where he establishes that the act complained of affects a non-possessory interest he has in the property
(c) may still succeed in an action of trespass to land, since he will be in constructive possession of the property through his ten
(d) cannot succeed in any action because the tenant’s rights of occupation trumps the rights of the owner.
Q20 the plaintiff was knocked down by an over-speeding motorist whilst crossing a road. He sustained injuries and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. The injuries he sustained were aggravated by lack of surgery due to shortage of blood in the only hospital nearby. This led to the amputation of his right limb. The plaintiff sued the motorist for his injuries. The defendant’s lawyer contended that since the shortage of blood at the blood bank of the hospital was not a situation which could have been foreseen by the defendant, he should not be held liable for the full damage suffered by the plaintiff. The court should:
(a) Grant the defendant’s prayer because the amputation was caused by the lack of blood in the hospital but not because of the injury sustained
(b) Grant the defendant’s prayer because the negligence leading to the aggravated nature of plaintiffs injury was not proved
(c) Deny defendant his prayer because whether or not the lack of surgery contributed wholly or partly to the incapacity of plaintiff, the injuries were the type which the defendant could reasonably have for seen and defendant, as tortfeasor, must be asked to take plaintiff as he found him
(d) Deny defendant his prayer because every tortfeasor must be held liable for the consequence of his tortuous act no matter any defense he might have.
SECTION B:
ANSWER QUESTION ONE (1) AND ANY ONE OTHER QUESTION FROM THIS SECTION.ALL QUESTIONS CARRY EQUAL MARKS. MARKS WILL ONLY BE AWARDED FOR ANSWERS TO QUESTION ONE (1) AND THE OTHER QUESTION
ANSWERED. MARKS WILL NOT BE AWARDED WHERE A CANDIDATE FAILS TO ANSWER QUESTION ON (I) USE A SEPARATE ANSWER BOOKLET FOR EACH ANSWER
Ql. During the African Nations Cup held in Ghana in the year 2008, a hotel in Takoradi by name Sikape Hotel, received reservation orders from a Ghanaian Company by name Abrabo Tourist and Tours Limited, acting as agents of a supporters’ group in La Cote D’Ivoire for fifty (50) double-room reservation for a person of fifteen (15) days beginning from the opening date of the tournament. The hotel already had thirty-five (35) rooms made up of thirty (30) double rooms and five and five (5) single rooms, so management decided to expand the facilities by the construction of twenty (20) more double rooms and five (5) extra single rooms to cater for the group. The rate per night of each double room as agreed between the hotel management and the supporters group from La Cote D’Ivoire was GHC180.00.
The hotel entered into a contract with Bobrapa Construction Limited (a building construction firm in Takoradi), for the construction of the twenty-five (25) extra rooms and the renovation of the entire hotel to host the 50-man supporters’ group from La Cote D’Ivoire. The Bobrapa Construction Company was represented by its Managing Director Mr. Koo Hia throughout the period of negotiations and execution of the contract between it and the hotel. It was he who signed the contract document for and on behalf of the company.
The contractors charged GHC200,000.00 for the job and promised to complete it four clear weeks before the opening of the tournament on condition that the hotel pays eighty percent (80%) of the contract sum, which was GHC 160,000.00, upon the execution of the contract. The hotel duly paid the 80% of the contract sum as agreed on the very day the agreement was executed. The money was received on behalf of the company by its Managing Director, Koo Hia.
On receipt of the amount, Koo Hia travelled to Accra and purchase a brand-new Honda CR4 (4×4) for himself and a Tata Indigo Saloon car for his wife. For about two (2) months, Koo Hia left town and was nowhere to be found. The constructor was not able to construct even a single room as agreed. The hotel could not therefore host the supporters’ group from La Cote D’Ivoire as agreed. The group was forced to re-locate in Cape Coast so the hotel lost all its investments plus profits it would have derived or made from the contract between it and the supporters’ group. The hotel decided to drag the construction firm to court for its losses.
(a) Has the hotel any cause of action against Bobrapa Company Limited? If no, explain and if yes, what reliefs are available to it?
(b) What actions, if any, may be brought against the Managing Director of the company, Koo Hia.
(35 marks)
Q2. Indications from several reports on Ghana’s economic performance and ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index conclude that the government is not winning the fight against corruption. Do you agree with this assessment give reasons for your answer. Proffer solutions, if any for the fight against corruption in the country and how Ghana might achieve a robust, self-sufficient economy which is not dependent on foreign aid
(25 marks)
Q3. The jury system is an anachronism Ghana’s judicial system can ill afford. Do you agree with this proposition? Give reasons for your answer. What recommendations if any would you make to reform the current system?
(25 marks)
