GHANA RUBBER PRODUCTS LTD V. CRITERION CO LTD

APALOO CJ

By a judgment dated 30 October 1984 the High Court entered judgment for the respondent- company against the appellant-company for the return of 27,265 bags of calcium carbonate or their value at ¢900 per bag and ¢15,000 damages for unlawful detention. If our arithmetic is correct, the total pecuniary award adds up to just over ¢241⁄2 million. That claim was founded in detinue and although the appellant-company contended in the court below that the suit was wrongly founded on that ancient remedy, this plea failed to persuade the judge. They again raised this issue of law before this court and invited us to hold that on the facts, the judge below was in error in holding that a case of detinue entitling the respondent-company to the return of the goods or their value and damages was established.

But the determination of the correct holding on this legal issue, depends, as most issues of law do, on the facts found or proved; and to the facts we now turn. The appellant-company, as …