DUAH v. BENG
[SUPREME COURT, ACCRA]
DATE: 12TH NOVEMBER, 1962
A ruling by a local court under regulation 69 that a plea of res judicata or absence of jurisdiction has
not been made out, is not a final decision on the said plea; all it amounts to is, that at the stage where
the ruling was made, there was not sufficient evidence before the local court to justify a ruling that the
plea had been made out. It is therefore still open to the party raising the point to lead evidence in the
course of the trial on the merits to assist the court to come to a definite decision on the plea at the
conclusion of the whole case. If at the close of the trial the court should be satisfied that the plea had
eventually been made out, it would be perfectly entitled to uphold the plea, notwithstanding its former
ruling. Therefore in this case, the Techiman Local Court was well within its powers in holding that
the claim was res judicata, provided its said findings can be supported by the evidence before it.
DECISION
(Duah v. Beng. Judgment delivered by Ollennu, J.S.C., Sarkodee-Adoo and Mills-Odoi, JJ.S.C. concurring.)
