Nana Room Dadzie Iv V. Egyei Appiah And Kojo Akesseh (1954)

Damages—Contract enabling seizure after notice—Seizure without notice—Award of contemptuous damages—Intervention on appeal.

The defendants (now respondents) seized the plaintiff’s lorry for default in payment of the agreed instalments, and the plaintiff sued them for damages for wrongful seizure. The plaintiff agreed that there had been default on his part.

The trial Judge found that it was a term of the contract that the defendants could seize the lorry if the plaintiff made default in paying any instalment after giving him one week’s notice, but that notice had not been given before seizure; nevertheless, he thought the plaintiff was to blame and awarded contemptuous damages of one shilling. The plaintiff appealed.

Held

It being a term of the contract to give a week’s notice before seizure, the plaintiff ought to have had damages reckoned on the basis of the profit he could have made for a week.

Appeal allowed: damages increased.