Court awards damages against School for sharing photo’s of arrested teacher on WhatsApp without her consent
The court presided by His Lordship Justice Frank Aboadwe Rockson on the 21st of July, 2021 awarded Compensatory damages GHȻ 75,000 to the plaintiff for breach of the plaintiff’s right to privacy
The High Court(Labour Division), Accra presided over by His Lordship Justice Frank Aboadwe Rockson has awarded several heads of damages against the Kiddie Kollege International School [1st Defendant] and Perpetual Fearon [2nd Defendant] the school’s proprietress, including compensation for breach of the right to privacy and data protection of Madam Yvonne Quinton-Cofie, a teacher of the school.
The court made this award after it was established during the trial that the school’s proprietress after causing her unlawful arrest took pictures of the teacher and one Kennedy Kwadwo Asare whiles they were at the Police Station without their consent and posted it on the School’s WhatsApp social media platform on the same day with the words “This is what people you employ do to you behind your back and yet they have the audacity to blame you. They collaborate on criminal activities with Supervisors, false representations and they still want to blame the owner. I leave them to the conscience. EAT ON THIS… They pray with you, laugh with you. Plan with you and stab you right in your face.”
The court held that the 2nd Defendant published the plaintiff’s photo taken and shared on WhatsApp without the plaintiff’s consent and consequently the Defendant’s publication of the plaintiff’s photo taken and shared on WhatsApp social media platform without her consent, knowledge or authorization constitutes an infringement of the Plaintiff’s right to privacy as enshrined in Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution and the Data Protection Act of 2012 Act 843.
The court quoted Section 43(1) of the Data Protection Act 2012 Act 843 which states that:
“Where an individual suffers damage or distress through the contravention by a data controller of the requirements of this Act, that individual is entitled to compensation from the data controller for the damage or distress,”
The court presided by His Lordship Justice Frank Aboadwe Rockson on the 21st of July, 2021 awarded Compensatory damages GHȻ 75,000 to the plaintiff for breach of the plaintiff’s right to privacy and Perpetual injunction against the 1st Defendant whether by itself, its officers, directors, servants, agents, etc. and the 2nd Defendant whether by herself, her servants or agents, etc from further publishing or causing to be published the words complained of or any similar words used in the Whatsapp message.
See full case on DennisLaw: Yvonne Quinton-Cofie(Plaintiff) vs. Kiddie Kollege International School(1st Defendant) and Perpetual Fearon(2nd Defendant)
