‘Apex Court of Ghana Throws out Injunction Application’ with other legal news

The Supreme Court on 27^th March 2024, dismissed an injunction application filed by Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (MP).

The said application by Mr. Dafeamepor sought to restrain the legislature from approving some ministers nominated recently by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

However, in dismissing the application, the Apex court held that the action by Mr Dafeamekpor touched and concerned the constitutionality of reassigned ministers and not ministers designate (whose names had been submitted to Parliament for approval).

As the Court could not preside and pronounce on matters not before it, the Supreme court held, it could not grant the injunction sought by the Plaintiff. 

The ruling by the Apex court re-affirms the principle of law that under common law, injunction will generally not lie to prevent a public body from the performance of constitutional and statutory duties.

Judicial Service of Ghana Introduces Changes On WebPage: www.judicial.gov.gh )

In what may be described as a welcoming news, the Judicial Service on 21^st March, 2024, announced some important changes to its webpage.

These changes – aimed at enhancing justice delivery as well making the webpage more court user friendly- may be summarized as follows:

1. publication by registrars of non-active cases on the webpage of the judicial service – a marked change and departure from the previous situation where publications was made in a national daily.

2. a link informing the general public about presence courts in the country on a regional basis.

3. a complaint portal for the Ghana Association of Banks (a major court user) to allow banks through designated representatives to file complaint with the complaints unit of the Service.

The above development clearly fits into the vision and quest of the judicial service to adopt and incorporate technology in its operations and to bring some innovations in how it carries out legal functions and external communications. 

Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for multi-billion-dollar FTX fraud.

On March, 28 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried – a cryptocurrency exchange pioneer – was handed a 25 years prison sentence for stealing $8 billion from FTX cryptocurrency exchange. The judgement delivered by District Court Judge, Lewis Kaplan rejected, Bankman’s claim that customers of FTX did not suffer losses.

 Bankman-Fried’s sentence marks a dramatic drop from an uber-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor to one of the biggest victories in a crackdown by US authorities on fraud in the cryptocurrency market.  

Transgender judge seeks leave to intervene in UK court case over legal definition of ‘woman’

Victoria McCloud-United, said to be the United Kingdom’s first transgender judge, is seeking to join a landmark suit over the legal definition of a woman. Judge McCloud, a senior civil judge will make an application to be joined to the suit instituted by the campaign for Women of Scotland – a women’s right group.

McCloud and campaign for Women of Scotland seeks to challenge the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, because to them, the Equality Act is opaque, unfair and unworkable for women in general and transgender women in particular.

Residences of hip-pop impresario Sean Combs (Puff Daddy) Raided By Federal Agents.

On Monday, Federal agents in the United States raided residences of famed hip-pop super star Sean Combs, in Florida and California. The raids follow a series of lawsuits by women who had worked alongside Sean Combs and who have variously accused him of rape and sexual assault.

In two of the lawsuits, Mr. Combs is accused of forcing plaintiffs to participate in sexual encounters with prostitutes.

The first lawsuit was filed by his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura (Cassie). She accused Mr. Combs of rape, physical abuse and forced sex with male prostitutes. The suit was settled just one day later, with both Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura saying their dispute had been resolved “amicably.”