AYIWAH AND ANOTHER V. BADU AND OTHERS

ADUMUA-BOSSMAN J.S.C.: This appeal is against a judgment dated the 16th May, 1961, of the High Court, Kumasi, which upheld the plaintiffs-respondents’ claim for (a) cancellation of a mortgage deed dated the 28th March, 1958, made between the plaintiffs-respondents as mortgagors and the first defendant-appellant as mortgagee, on the ground of “illegality resulting from harshness relating to the rate of interest charged”; and (b) injunction to restrain the sale of the property comprised in the said mortgage deed. The judgment, however, dismissed the first defendant-appellant’s counter-claim for £G1,275 the amount due for principal and interest under the said mortgage deed. The parties will be referred to shortly as plaintiffs and defendants respectively throughout the rest of this judgment.

From the pleadings the main issue which became outstanding for determination was whether the actual sum paid by the first defendant to the plaintiffs as principal money advanced was £G720, repayable w…