PRACTICE NOTE: ALLOTEY v. GBODI [1961] GLR 568
13 October 1961 · OLLENNU J · ≈ 2 min read
[1961] SLR (HC) 55Other citation styles and permanent link
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DIVISION: HIGH COURT, ACCRA
DATE: 13TH OCTOBER, 1961
BEFORE: OLLENNU J.
JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.
“A practice seems to have grown up in some of the local courts of the parties filing something in the nature of pleadings and relying upon [p.569] of [1961] GLR 568 those statements as the evidence in the case, so that apart from answers which a party gives under cross-examination, the parties themselves do not give evidence in the case. Still worse, the said statements are not incorporated in the record of proceedings, and so the appellate court does not know the facts upon which a judgment of the local court is based. That practice has manifested itself clearly in these proceedings. It is a bad practice which must be stopped. In this connection reference should be made to regulation 29 of the Local Courts Procedure Regulations, 1959 and to section 10 of the Oaths Act, 1960, (C.A. 12). Regulation 81 reads as follows:
“Every witness shall be put on such oath as he declares to be binding upon him, but if he objects to swearing any oath he shall affirm that the evidence he is about to give is the truth. The fact that the witness has taken the oath or has affirmed shall be written in the Record Book”; and section 10 of the Oaths Act, 1960 (C.A. 12) also provides as follows:
“10. No person shall be convicted or judgment given upon the uncorroborated evidence of a person who shall have given his evidence without oath or affirmation”.
The combined effect of these two provisions in our laws is that a statement filed by a party to a suit is not evidence, and a court should not act upon it. If a party wishes the contents of a statement he files to be considered as part of his evidence in the case, he has to repeat the whole of the contents of that statement on oath. The court should not base any decision upon such a statement which is merely filed.”
Editorial Note: Regulation 29 of the Local Courts Procedure Regulations, 1959 is now regulation 31 of the Local Courts Procedure Regulations 1962, (L.I. 208).
