Foh-Amoaning fined for practicing without license in Kantanka Automobile case

Veteran lawyer Moses Foh-Amoaning has been fined GHC 2,000 by an Accra High Court for practicing without a license.

A statement of the High Court, which was sighted by GhanaWeb, stated that Foh-Amoaning presented himself as a lawyer and filed a motion in court when he did not have the capacity to do so.

In addition to the fine, the judge who presided over the case, Justice Justin Kofi Dorgu, struck out the motion filed by the lawyer.

“In view of the fact that the Learned Counsel for the Subpoenaed Witness/Applicant was without capacity at the time he represented himself to the Court as Lawyer for the Applicant and further filed the motion to set aside the issuance and service of the subpoena on the 29th July. 2022, in that he had no practicing licence at the time, I find the motion defective and incompetent. The motion is thus struck out as incompetent.

“Cost of GHC 2,000.00 against Moses Foh-Amoaning Esq. in his personal capacity as Lawyer for the Applicant,” parts of the statement by the court read.

Foh-Amoaning represented himself when he was subpoenaed by the court as a witness in the case involving one Jude Osei and Kantanka Automobile Company Limited and Kwadwo Safo Jnr.

The judge adjourned the case to Monday, January 23, 2023 for hearing.

It should be noted that Foh-Amoaning is a lawyer but had not renewed his license with the Ghana Bar Association which is mandatory for all lawyers wishing to practice within the jurisdiction of Ghana and a violation of the 1992 Constitution if not done.

The renewal of the license with the Ghana Bar is supposed to be done every year.

Background

Kantanka Automobile and Kwadwo Safo Jnr were sued over a failed social media promise with an account kantanka_daily.

In a writ issued on May 14, 2019, Plaintiff Jude Osei said that he received a message on Kantaka Automobile's private message to share a picture of Kantaka Automobile's car on Twitter and if he was able to get 30,000 retweets, he would be rewarded a Kantanka Mensa car.

After almost a year, Jude Osei was able to gain 30,000 retweets. He subsequently sent a message to Kantanka for his reward but around the time he asked for his car, Kantanka automobile issued a disclaimer that the general public should treat any tweet offering Kantanka Mensa for 30,000 retweets as a hoax.

Jude Osie raised concerns as to why the company was silent and never issued a disclaimer for almost a year and only announced it after he had gained over 30,000 retweets. Based on this, he headed to court.

Jude Osei's lawyer, Felix Nana Osei argued that the account is not fake as the handle was once used to tweet a message to Sarkodie to which the rapper responded.

The tweet was also retweeted by Kwadwo Kantanka Jnr. with the same handle, Kantanka daily.

He also argues that, even if the account was fake, the company should not have waited for over a year before issuing a disclaimer.

They are, however, demanding: A declaration that at all material times, the Defendants caused, allowed and or permitted me @kantanka daily Twitter account to carry itself as an agent of the 1st Defendant, damages for breach of contract and a declaration that @kantanka_daily entered into a valid contract with the Plaintiff to the knowledge of the Defendants among others.

IB/DO