Dear Mirror Lawyer, I have been sued in the High Court over a plot of land I bought, which the person who sued me claims I took unlawfully from him.
I bought the land legally and satisfied all requirements from the rightful stool. My competitor obtained an injunction order to stop me from building my house on the land.
I ignored this and continued the next day. My friend, however, told me to stop immediately and warned that I could be jailed for contempt of court. Is this true?
Jones Mensah, Teshie.
Dear Jones, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition, contempt is defined as conduct that defies the authority or dignity of a court or legislature.
This simply means disobeying a court order or doing something that defies the authority of a court through your conduct.
The primary aim of contempt is to protect the integrity of the justice system and guarantee the fair and uninterrupted administration of justice.
We have two types of contempt. The first is civil contempt, which occurs when a party deliberately disobeys a clear court order, judgment, or subpoena that directs that person to perform a specific task or refrain from continuing a conduct until the court has heard all the parties and issued its final orders.
The purpose is to force compliance with the court's orders and directives. This type of contempt is coercive because the punishment could be a fine, imprisonment, or both until the guilty person purges himself by agreeing to comply with the court's directives.
The second category is criminal contempt. This includes conduct that obstructs or undermines the administration of justice or directly scandalises the court. Examples of such conduct include rowdyism, insults, or disruptive behaviour in the courtroom, or behaviour outside the courtroom that prejudices a case or scandalises the court. The purpose is punitive and penalties generally include a set fine or a fixed term of incarceration.
In the case of Republic vrs Sitso 1; Ex parte Fordjour [2001-2002] the elements constituting the offence of contempt were formulated by the Supreme Court as follows:
There should have been a judgment or order which required the contemnor to do or abstain from doing something.
The contemnor knew what precisely he was expected to do or abstain from doing; and that he failed to comply with the terms of that judgment or the order and that his disobedience was willful.
In this scenario, you committed civil contempt because you deliberately failed to comply with an order of the court, though you knew about the injunction order.
In Civil cases, where a person fails to follow an order of the court, the Republic would prosecute whoever committed contempt, while the other party in the case appears as the complainant.
Your civil matter is also in the High Court, which forms part of the Superior Courts. Article 126(2) of the 1992 Constitution states that the Superior Courts shall be superior courts of record and shall have the power to commit contempt to themselves.
Therefore, you are liable to the jurisdiction of the High Court to be charged with contempt if you continue to disobey the injunction order. I advise that you stay away from the land.
Any conviction of contempt and imprisonment will not make you an ex-convict since your conviction does not fall under any of the criminal offences against the Republic.
