The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Abuakwa South Constituency, Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea, has told an Accra High Court that his law firm, Zoe, Akyea & Co., used ¢80 million (old cedis) as miscellaneous expenses on a case he handled for his former client, J. Adom Limited, a civil construction firm based in Sunyani.
The MP, who was giving evidence in a suit he filed against J. Adom Construction Limited, told the court presided over by Justice George Ato Mills-Graves that the ¢80 million was meant to take care of filing fees, transport, pocket allowances, and other miscellaneous expenditures in handling a case in 2003.
According to the witness, the said amount was paid into an account on November 11, 2003 by Mr. Joseph Adom, owner of the construction firm, to handle a legal suit brought against him by Engineers and Planners Limited, of which a counter-claim had also been sought.
Mr. Atta Akyea flatly denied that the ¢80 million paid in 2003 was part payment of ¢100 million agreed on with his former client as legal fees charged on the Engineers and Planners Limited case.
According to him, with regard to the work done in the Engineers & Planners Limited case, the claims being sought run into billions of cedis and several thousand of dollars, and in accordance with the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) legal fees charge, no lawyer could take ¢100 million as legal fees on a case of such magnitude.
He recounted giving his former client a sheet of paper indicating the various fees required to pay as filing fees for the case, prior to the payment of the ¢80 million, but could not tell the particular location where he the paper to Mr. Adom.
He, therefore, promised to make available the sheet of paper to the court, adding that he gave Mr. Adom a copy of the paper since it was coming from the cashier of the Judicial Service, who assessed their claim of the filing fees.
The witness further denied the claim made by counsel for the defendant that Mr. Adom immediately made payment for the filing fees, when he presented the sheet of paper containing the filing fee assessment of the case handled.
Mr. Atta Akyea also denied receiving cash gifts from his former client during the period he worked for him. According to him, Mr. Adom gave him political donations when he was vying for a parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP.
The witness told the court that the political donation made by Mr. Adom to him was to further his former client’s cause since it would benefit his work if the NPP came into government.
He noted that no account was rendered to Mr. Adom after the case was completed in 2007, adding that his former client was not interested in the accounts, but only in sending him to the police station.
However, Mr. Atta Akyea informed the court that, within the period of six years of handling the case for Mr. Adom, he had been paid his legal fees through liens and set-offs from monies received in his client’s account from other cases paid to his former client.
Cross-examination continues on May 28, 2013.
Mr. Atta Akyea and his law firm, Zoe, Akyea & Co., sued Mr. Joseph Adom and his construction firm, J. Adom Limited, on Monday, August 23, 2010, for the recovery of US$81,569.20 and GH¢90,751.22 being fees for legal services rendered.
He further asked the court to declare that he was entitled to exercise a lien over all monies he (Atta Akyea) had recovered for the defendant, and had a right to them set-off against professional fees, in addition for orders for accounts to be rendered.
In his response, Mr. Adom denied owing his former lawyer, and is further demanding a counter-claim of GH¢234,731.31 with interest, being judgment debts which had not been accounted for by the MP.
In a defence filed by Bosompen & Associates, counsel for J. Adom Limited, it requested the court to grant an order for the payment of an amount of US$60,000.00 (GH¢90,000.00), being the balance outstanding from the US$150,000.00 given Mr. Atta Akyea for the purchase of a house at the Airport Residential Area with interest, from April 16, 2008.
In addition, J. Adom Limited is also demanding an additional amount of GH¢66,299.85 – being money paid by Mr. Harry Sintim-Aboagye to the legal firm, Zoe, Akyea & Co., through Atta Akyea, but which he (Akyea) failed to pay back to Adom Construction.
Further, J. Adom Limited prayed that the court grant an order for the payment of an amount of GH¢78,501.46 – being money paid to the plaintiff/defendant to counter-claim by International Structures Group Limited to be paid to the defendant, but which he failed to do.
It also prayed for the court to grant an order for interest to be paid on the said amount, from March 1, 2007.
Atta Akyea’s services to J. Adom Limited came to an abrupt end on February 25, 2010. A letter terminating his appointment was handed to him for allegedly embezzling the aforementioned amount, belonging to the construction firm, without the knowledge of the directors.
The amount is said to be a judgment debt paid into the client’s account, of which Mr. Akyea is the sole signatory. He was also accused of embezzling US$60,000 out of a US$155,000.00 earmarked by the company to purchase a building situated at the Airport Residential area, a prime suburb in Accra.
The legal mogul was subsequently reported to the Commercial Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service Headquarters in Accra on criminal charges, but he denied all the allegations leveled against him.
He noted that the action taken by his former client was a calculated attempt to tarnish his image.
