EMBALINKS TELECOM SERVICES LTD. V. CAL BANK LTD.

JUDGMENT

ACKAH-YENSU (MS) JSC:-

INTRODUCTION

This appeal has arisen as a result of a dispute over the computation of the actual indebtedness of a customer to a bank.  Nowadays, it is not uncommon for debtors to seek the intervention of the courts to avoid valid transactions entered into with creditors.  The timing of such interventions, often during a default, is strategic with obvious motives. However, the courts cannot intervene unless there are vitiating circumstances like unconscionability, mistake, or fraud.

Indisputably, while borrowers are usually persons in great need and will often succumb to whatever terms of the agreement entered into with lenders, the law has carved a balancing mechanism to sustain the social significance of the bank-customer/borrower-lender relationship.  There are several occasions where the courts have opened up agreements entered into between a bank and its customer and reviewed or modified same for being unconscionable.  Other times, the courts find that …