JUDGMENT OF AMISSAH J.A.
The issue which falls to me to decide in this case is in my view of a limited nature. It is briefly whether the plaintiffs, C.I.L.E.V., as holders of four bills of lading covering consignments of goods shipped to Ghana in the defendants’ boat are entitled upon presentation of the bills of lading and the proffer of payment for freight for those goods to the defendants to their release by the defendants to them. If that is so then whether the defendants in refusing to release the goods have not done wrong to the plaintiffs for which the plaintiffs are entitled to damages as well. The questions have in the course of the case been wrapped up in a mass of irrelevancies. Goods covered by nine sets of bills of lading shipped by Fratelli Gondrand arrived at Takoradi harbour some time in April 1967. The evidence is that Gondrand are shipping agents carrying on business in Italy and that in this particular case they shipped the goods as agents of C.I.L.E.V. The goods w…