In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court (SC) of Norway refused to grant leave to Messrs Jongsbru AS, a party to the judgement of Norway Court of Appeal given in favour of Ghana on November 2, 2022.
This was a preliminary decision by a three-member panel of the SC to Norwegian civil procedure rules.
The case concerns the litigation over the purchase of a property previously identified by the Republic of Ghana for use as a chancery building in Oslo.
Per the Norwegian law, if a Court of Appeal gives a judgement in a civil case and same is appealed at the SC, the court, would first, make a preliminary decision by taking into consideration, whether a new or major issue of law is raised in the matter.
The Norway SC does not hear an appeal on matters concerning the facts or evidence in a civil matter.
This judgement brings finality to the four year litigation in which the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Dame represented Ghana.
The Court of Appeal on November 2, 2022 awarded cost of $250,000 in favour of Ghana.
The SC ordered Jongsbru to compensate Ghana nominal legal costs of USD 1 871.
Mr Dame said he was elated by the decision of the SC.
He explained that the cost awarded to Ghana, which was still outstanding, would be used to defray his travel expenses and those of witnesses from Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who testified on behalf of Ghana.
Prior to the decision of the SC, Mr Dame explained that, under Norwegian civil procedure rules, any civil judgment of the Court of Appeal may be appealed to the SC but the hearing of that appeal is not as of right.
In the appeal at the SC, Jongsbru contended that the decision of the Court of Appeal was too short, vague, unclear and contained deficiencies, which rendered a proper appeal on the merits impossible and therefore, the judgment had to be “repealed.”
An application for a judgment to be repealed, in Norwegian law, is similar to a request to set aside the judgment.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
