DJABANOR J.: In this case the plaintiffs’ claim against the defendant is for the sum of £G5,483 6s. being the value of cocoa received by the defendant as a clerk of the plaintiffs for which he is liable to account, and for which he is unable to account.
The facts are quite simple. During the 1960–61 main crop season the defendant received from various sources a total of 76,468 bags of cocoa on behalf of the plaintiffs which he stacked in sheds of which he held the keys. Out of the said cocoa received by the defendant, 75,759 bags were railed by him to the Cocoa Marketing Board, also on behalf of the plaintiffs, leaving a balance of 709 bags which should have been in the shed. But they were nowhere to be found. The plaintiffs therefore are claiming the value of the unaccounted for cocoa which is £G54,483 6s.
In his defence the defendant denied that any contract existed between him and the plaintiffs whereby he was accountable for any losses or shortages of cocoa, and said that since he w…