More Trouble For Manly-Spain

A local financial institution, Fidelity Bank, has also hauled Servistar Minwax WA Limited before an Accra Commercial High Court over its failure to repay an outstanding debt balance on a facility it took.

Servistar Minwax W.A Ltd is a company owned by Henry Ekow Manly–Spain, who vied for the NDC chairmanship position and his wife, Ivy, had already suffered a similar court case with Kommandit Gesellschaftmti-verteibsgesellscaft Mbh & Co. (KGMTI), which won a case to recover $276,465 from the company of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) gurus.

According to the latest writ filed by Fidelity Bank, several demand notices to the defendant company to repay the balance of GH¢5,644,386.08 as of December 24, 2015, had failed.

According to the writ, Servistar also overdrew its account by GH¢3,035,772.76 “and has since then not refunded the unauthorized overdraft.”

Claims

Lawyers for Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited, in a statement of claim, stated that the defendant applied for and was granted a facility of GH¢5,316,006.10 on June 26, 2014.

The bank, in its statement of claim, further stated that the defendant applied for and was granted a facility of GH¢5,316,006.10 on June 26, 2014.

It said that the loan was to be repaid with an interest rate of 29.25% per annum for a tenure of eight months, adding that the facility was also to attract a penal interest of 6% per annum, in the event of default of monthly installments payment.

This is not the first time the Manly-Spain business empire has been embroiled in a legal tussle.

Other Cases

On November 7, 2016, a justice of the High Court (Commercial Division), Accra, delivered judgement against Servistar Minwax WA Ltd in the case (Kommandit Gesellschaftmti-verteibsgesellscaft Mbh & Co. (KGMTI) vs Servistar Minwax WA Ltd.

In another case, the company – PMI Foods Bahnhofstasse 1, Switzerland, filed a suit against Servistar Minwax WA Ltd for recovery of debts owed the former.

From the Entry of Judgment dated and entered on November 28, 2016, a justice of the High Court again entered judgement against Servistar as follows:

“Payment for the sum of $144,002.24, being the cost of products unpaid since January 2014.”

It added, “Interest on the above sum at the prevailing dollar bank rate of 12% per annum from 1st January, 2014 till date of final payment being US$53,280.83 (i.e. interest rate of 12% per annum from 1st January, 2014 to 24th January, 2017).

Defence

However, Servistar, through its lawyers -Kuenyehia and Nutsukpui – while denying portions of the bank’s claims, said it had never admitted owing any specific sums of money.

They were of the view that from the volume of trade between the parties, there might well be some monies between them and as such, its offer to an actual payment of GH¢100,000 per month was a good faith gesture, which it had since discontinued due to the Plaintiff’s posturing.

He stated among other things that for instance, upon a limited reconciliation exercise that it had carried out, it discovered that a cheque in excess of GH¢100,000 had not been credited to its account and brought this to the attention of the bank, insisting that a proper audit of its accounts with the plaintiff be undertaken, but to no avail.

The defendant contended that the plaintiff is not entitled to its claims.

Meanwhile, sitting has been adjourned until October 9, 2017.