Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DRAMA UNFOLDED in court last Friday when the judge presiding over the case in which POS Foundation has sued Fan Milk Company for selling expired products to unsuspecting members of the public raised issues about the operational licence of solicitors of the ice-cream manufacturing company.
Fan Milk was seeking to set aside the writ of summons of POS Foundation and its Chief Executive, Jonathan Osei Owusu, on the grounds that the plaintiff, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), and its Chief Executive, a human rights activist, had failed to sign the statement of claim attached to the writ of summons.
This followed a suit filed by Mr. Owusu against the company and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) after being hospitalized for consuming supposed expired yoghurt, one of the numerous products of the company.
Justice Utter Peter Dery of the Human Rights Court questioned the credibility of the licence of solicitors of Fan Milk, Messrs Quist, Brown, Wontumi and Associates, represented by Yaw Adjei Affram with registration number 03115, quoted on the statement of conditional appearance signed by S. K. Amoah.
This, according to the judge, was because the solicitors' licence expired on January 13 while the letter was written on January 20.
He therefore ordered the solicitors to immediately renew their licence to continue with the case.
Justice Dery therefore dismissed Fan Milk’s motion, saying “this application is thrown overboard since the first defendant, Fan Milk Limited, cannot stand on this minor error to seek the court to dismiss the case."
Mr. Affram said the failure to sign the statement of claim rendered the summons void since every writ of summons should be accompanied by a statement of claim duly signed.
Mr. Affram said "In the absence of a signed statement of claim, the writ of summons cannot stand."
But counsel for Pos Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu, Denis Ofosuappeah and Isaac Aidoo of Ahmed and Co., contended that the statement of claim which was not signed could be corrected within a matter of seconds so that the case could be speedily heard and disposed of instead of dragging it to waste the court's time.
POS Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu are seeking the court’s order to get Fan Milk Company to put an expiry date on Fanyogo, one of its products, and make it legible while stopping the sale of its products carried by vendors in the hot sun.
The plaintiff is also asking the court to order the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) which is the second defendant to ensure that Fan Milk fixes legible expiry dates on the products and institutes an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure public interest and safety.
It wants the court to order Fan Milk to immediately recall all Fanyogo products on the market until the expiry dates are fixed on the products and an injunction on the production of Fanyogo until they have met all the conditions of legible expiry date and recall of the products on the market.
Furthermore, Pos Foundation is seeking an extensive health care in favour of Mr. Osei Owusu as well as general damages and cost.