The plaintiff’s writ against the defendant is for:

(a) Recovery of the sum of GH¢86,400.00 being cost of petroleum products supplied to the defendant which sum the defendant has failed or refused to pay despite repeated demands.

(b) Interest on the said sum at the prevailing commercial bank rate from 19^th August, 2014 to date of final payment.

(c) Costs including legal fees.

After the writ has been served on the defendants and after the defendants have entered appearance and filed their statement of defence, the matter was referred for pre-trial settlement but when the parties failed to reach a settlement and the case came for trial, the case was called before the court on the 27^th July, 2016 and the court ordered the parties to file their witness statements within a specified time and adjourned the case for pre-trial case management conference on the 6^th day of October 2016.

However, when the case was called on the date in question, the plaintiff told the court that the plaintiff was unable to file its witness statement in time. The court therefore adjourned the matter to the 27^th day of October, 2016 to enable the defendants file their witness statement. When the case was called on the adjourned date, the defendants have still not filed their witness statements; the case was hence adjourned to the 15^th day of November, 2016. Hearing notice was again served on the defendants on the 8^th November, 2016. The case was called on the 15^th November, 2016; the defendants failed to appear and also failed to file their witness statement. The court again adjourned the case to the 1^st of December, 2016 for definite hearing. Hearing notice was therefore served on the defendants on the 22^nd day of November, 2016 to appear before the court on the 1^st of December for hearing but again when the case was called on the 1^st December, 2016, the defendants had not filed their witness statements and also failed to appear in court.

The plaintiff was therefore invited to testify and they did so through their representative Marian Atta-Boahene. From the statement of defence filed by the defendants, the court finds that the defendants have admitted that sometime in August 2014, the plaintiff was engaged by the 2^nd defendant to supply fuel products to the 1^st defendant vessel. The court also finds from the statement of defence that the defendants have admitted that indeed the plaintiff supplied the fuel products as requested by the 2^nd defendant to the 1^st defendant. The defendants have also admitted that that receipt of the fuel was acknowledged by embossing their stamp on the delivery note which accompanied the delivery. Exhibits ‘A’ and ‘A1’ also attests to this finding. There is also evidence on record that in September 2014 the defendants, again, requested the plaintiff to supply fuel products to them as shown by exhibit ‘B’.

Following the defendants’ request, the plaintiff supplied petroleum products worth GH₵86,400.00 to the defendants as shown by exhibit ‘D’. The court finds that on the 20^th November, 2014 and 11^th December, 2014, the plaintiff wrote exhibits ‘E’ and ‘E1’ to the defendants demanding the payment for the invoiced sum of GH₵86,400.00 from the defendants. The defendants wrote exhibit ‘F’ dated the 6^th January, 2015 to the plaintiff in which the defendants acknowledged their indebtedness to the plaintiff and promised to pay their debt by the 6^th March, 2015. The court finds that when the defendants failed to honour their promise to pay their debt, the plaintiff on the 16 ^th March, 2015 wrote a final demand notice to the defendants. However, up to date defendants have failed to settle their indebtedness to the plaintiff.

The court holds that from the evidence on record, the defendants are truly indebted to the plaintiff herein in the sum of GH₵86,400.00. The court, therefore, enters judgment in favour of the plaintiff against the defendants to recover the sum of GH₵86,400.00 together with interest at the prevailing bank rate from the 19^th day of August, 2014 to the date of final payment. The defendants shall also pay costs of GH₵10,000.00 to the plaintiff.