Kumasi Club: Court dismisses Owusu Nyarko’s defamation claim
The Court of Appeal in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region last Friday affirmed that some members of Kumasi Club did not defame Richard Kwadwo Owusu Nyarko when they referred to him as a quack and fake medical doctor.
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The court, consequently, upheld the decision of the Kumasi High Court, which dismissed the defamation suit filed against six trustees of the club by its former Chairman, Mr Nyarko.
The appellate court maintained that Mr Nyarko, though a General Nurse, portrayed himself as a medical doctor and as such the High Court was right in dismissing his defamation application.
The three-member panel presided over by Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah was unanimous in their decision and, accordingly, dismissed the first two grounds of the application.
The court, however, set aside the cost of GH¢100,000 awarded to each of the defendants and reviewed it to GH¢20,000 each.
According to the judges, the court took into consideration all the proceedings of the High Court and those who attended the court and believed that the GH¢100,000 was on the high side.
The court also awarded a cost of GH¢20,000 against the applicant.
In April last year, the Kumasi High Court slapped Richard Kwadwo Owusu Nyarko with a GH¢600,000 cost for failing in a defamation suit against six members of the club.
That was after the court had dismissed the defamation application brought against the defendants by the plaintiff.
The defendants were Kwame Brenya, Norman Owusu Barnie, Henry Asumadu, Kofi Owusu Ansah, Andy Arhin and Kojo Sarpong.
The High Court held that evidence on record showed that Mr Nyarko was not a medical doctor but had presented himself as such to the Kumasi Club.
It was, therefore, the considered view of the court that the defendants were justified in calling him those names and, therefore, no case of defamation had been made.
“A man could not complain that his character or reputation had been injured if what was said about him was true or substantially true,” the court said.
Appeal
Not satisfied with the ruling, Mr Nyarko appealed against the decision of the High Court at the Court of Appeal and prayed the court to review the cost awarded against him as it was excessive.
It was his belief that the decision of the High Court was against the weight of the evidence and that the court “erred in law and on the face of the admissions when it held that the actions of the defendants did not constitute defamation”.
Defamation
On May 26, 2020, Mr Nyarko dragged the six members to the Kumasi High Court for defamation.
He accused the six of raining insults on him on the club’s official WhatsApp platform by calling him a “fake doctor, quack, dishonest and criminal”.
However, in its ruling, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court and added that it had reviewed all the proceedings and was of the view that “the defendants/respondents were justified in referring to Richard Kwadwo Owusu Nyarko as a quack doctor because he had always held himself out to members of the Kumasi Club that he was a medical doctor when he was not.
“He was rather a General Nurse parading as a qualified medical doctor. So if the defendants/respondents refer to him as a fake and quack ... they are justified,” the court held.
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