ADU V. ATTA AND ANOTHER

EDUSEI J.A.: This is an appeal against the judgment of Anterkyi J. sitting in the High Court, Accra and dated 4 November 1983. The plaintiff-respondents (hereinafter referred to simply as the plaintiffs) sued out a writ against the defendant-appellant (who will hereafter be referred to as the defendant), claiming specific performance of a contract of sale of a parcel of land with a dwelling-house on it and situate at Chorkor, a suburb of Accra. It is numbered house No. 384/5. The other relief sought by the plaintiffs was that the defendant be compelled to execute a deed of conveyance of the said property in their favour.

The defendant put up a defence that the plaintiffs did not perform their part of the contract by the failure to pay the agreed purchase-price within the stipulated time and this therefore disabled them from claiming the equitable remedy of specific performance. In a sense the defendant’s contention was that time was of the essence of the contract of sale. The learned …