Zoe, Akyea And Company Seeks Redress In Court

Mr Atta Akyea

An Accra-based firm of legal practitioners has instituted an action at the Commercial Division of the High Court to recover $81,569.20 and GH¢90,751.22, being legal fees for professional services it rendered to J.Adom Limited, a civil engineering firm, from 2003 to 2009.

The plaintiff, Zoe, Akyea and Company, is also seeking a declaration that it is entitled to exercise a claim over all money it has recovered for the defendant, and has a right of set-off as against the plaintiff’s professional fees.

It is further seeking an order for accounts and costs.

In its statement of claim, the plaintiff said sometime in 2003, the defendant, acting solely through its Managing Director, Mr Joseph Adom, consulted the plaintiff through its Head of Chambers, , who is also the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, regarding some legal matters.

The statement averred that, of and concerning the instructions given by the defendant on all legal problems the defendant requested the plaintiff to solve, the defendant spoke through its Managing Director and the sole directing mind, Mr Joseph Adom, and no other individual.

It said in a suit between TotalFinaElf Ghana Limited and J. Adom Limited, the defendant owed TotalFinaElf Ghana Limited the sum of GH¢168,611.30, but the plaintiff brokered a deal with their solicitors to obviate the necessity of attaching the properties of the defendant.

This, according to the statement, was after judgement had been entered in favour of TotalFinaElf Ghana Limited by the High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Frances Owusu Arhin, adding that the plaintiff’s professional charge in respect of the respite secured for the defendant was a bare three per cent of the claim which totalled GH¢5,058.34.

The statement said in another suit between Engineers and Planners and the defendant regarding an unpaid claim under a sub-contract for the reconstruction of the Wenchi-Sampa road, Mr Joseph Adom instructed Atta Akyea to defend the action and counterclaim.

It said the legal battle which ended in October 2009, went in favour of the defendant and as a result the plaintiff was entitled to 10 per cent each as charges in defending the claim and the counterclaim.

The statement said those charges amounted to a total of GH¢53,460.98 and $62,069.2.

According to the statement, another claim against the defendant in respect of non-payment of charges on a sub-contract work undertaken by Vivendi Construction Limited for J. Adom Limited ended up in the High Court in which the defendant lost because its own ex-project manager testified in favour of Vivendi Construction Limited.

“The defendant lodged an appeal and lost, with the interest on the claim ballooning.

The worsening turn of events seriously angered Joseph Adom, who demanded an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court, which emotional request the plaintiff, in its professional judgement, refused to carry out,” the statement said, adding that the plaintiff’s professional fees in that case amounted to a total of GH¢17,781.76.

The statement said in a suit between J. Adom Limited and Harry Sintim Aboagye for a claim for the sum of GH¢66,000.00 and for which the plaintiff’s legal charges amounted to GH¢6,600.00, the defendant was at all material times extremely angered by the fact the court had granted Harry Sintim Aboagye some respite to liquidate the judgement debt by instalment.

“Indeed, Joseph Adom had agreed with Atta Akyea that the instalment payments should be received by the plaintiff by reason of the fact that the defendant owed so much money to the plaintiff in respect of the Engineers & Planners case, as well as the Vivendi case, a fact he conveniently denies,” it said.

According to the statement, Joseph Adom also instructed Atta Akyea to prosecute a case between the defendant and Int. Structures Group Limited and upon service of the action Int.

Structures Group Limited elected to settle the matter if, and only if, the defendant would accept a bullet payment of GH¢78,501,435.40 without more, to which Joseph Adom agreed, adding that “by reason of the huge sums of money already due the plaintiff from the defendant, Joseph Adom, for and on behalf of the defendant, wrote to Int. Structures Group Limited that the agreed amount of GH¢78,501,435.40 should be paid to the plaintiff.”

Regarding that case, the statement said the plaintiff’s professional fees amounted to GH¢7,850,143.54.

According to the statement, in May 2008, Joseph Adom ushered into the plaintiff’s office a gentleman by name Joseph Krampah, also known as Joseph Amissah, as the agent of one Wisdom Ganyo Fumey, a vendor in a purported sale of a landed property at the Airport Residential Area, Accra, at the consideration of a ridiculously low sum of $115,000.

It said the plaintiff’s head of chambers, Atta Akyea, interrogated the two over the purported sale of the property and became convinced that without due diligence the sale could not be completed because the so-called vendor was alleged to be resident in the United States of America.

“When Atta Akyea commenced due diligence, Joseph Adom lodged the cedi equivalent of $115,000 into the account of plaintiff.

“Before due diligence could even be half-way, Joseph Adom instructed Atta Akyea to conclude the sale on the basis that an ex-civil engineer of the defendant by name Robert Asah, purportedly resident in London, had duly confirmed that the deal was good and problem-free, and if the same was not closed, other potential buyers were ready with their money,” the statement said.

It said Atta Akyea duly warned Joseph Adom, without success, about the dangers of buying property in the manner in which Joseph Krampah had packaged, but he insisted that the money in the custody of the plaintiff should be released to Joseph Krampah.

“Atta Akyea cleverly staggered the payment to buy time to conclude the due diligence, and advanced the total of $60,000 to Joseph Krampah.

As it happened, the sale was a hoax,” the statement said.

It said later in time, Joseph Adom pleaded with Atta Akyea to use lawful means to cause the arrest of Joseph Krampah and instructed him to apply $5000 for that undercover exercise.

“Atta Akyea wrote to the police in that regard, and successfully caused the arrest of Joseph Krampah in May 2009, to the knowledge of Joseph Adom, who, without rhyme or reason refused, failed and/or neglected to provide a statement to the police in respect of his emotional chase of a low-priced property against the better judgement of his solicitor,” the statement said.