Norway Court dismisses appeal against Ghana in Oslo Chancery building case
In a unanimous decision of the three-panel member court, dated November 22, 2022, held Ghana was fully acquitted of all liability and that a purchase agreement could not be said to have been reached between Ghana and the appellant.
The Court of Appeal in Oslo, Norway has dismissed an appeal against the judgment of the District Court filed against the Republic of Ghana by Jongsbru AS, the seller of a property identified by Ghana for use as a chancery building in Oslo, Norway.
A unanimous decision of the three-panel member court, dated November 22, 2022, held Ghana was fully acquitted of all liability and that a purchase agreement could not be said to have been reached between her and the appellant.
In 2018, Ghana decided to establish an embassy in Norway and opted to acquire a building Oslo to serve as its chancery.
As a result, a delegation sent from Ghana identified several properties including the one at the center of the litigation thus the Sigyns Gate 3 at Frogner in Oslo.
Subsequently, Ghana received an offer from the owners Jongsbro to purchase the said building for 100 million Norwegian Kronner within a deadline of seven days.
However on the said deadline, the Republic of Ghana through its Charge d’Affaires, Regina Appiah-Sam responded to the offer pursuant to certain terms and conditions including;
That the building is without any significant defects and that renovation works are performed and completed satisfactorily.
Also, Ghana insisted that the seller secures a final approval from the relevant authorities for the purpose for which it was acquiring the same.
Fast forward, after Ghana’s appointed valuers had confirmed per their examination that the said building met all the above conditions, Ghana pulled out of the transaction on the ground of the failure of the sellers to satisfy a condition for final approval from the Oslo Municipal authorities concerned.
Dissatisfied by Ghana’s sudden pull out of the transaction, Jongsbru AS filed an action at the Oslo District Court against GoG claiming inter alia damages to the tune of Seventy-eight million Norwegian Kroner for breach of contract.
However, the District Court dismissed the action while upholding Ghana’s claim to the effect that it was Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs who had the competence per Section 20 of the State Property and Contracts Act of 1960 to bind Ghana in such transactions but not the Charge d’Affaires nor the lawyer and thus held that no binding or valid agreement existed between Ghana and the sellers.
Again not satisfied by the court’s decision, the sellers proceeded to the Oslo Court of Appeal, where proceedings were held between October 25 to 28 this year.
Dismissing the appeal, the court held that the appellant was not entitled to any damages because it did not incur any economic loss and that Ghana had the right to withdraw from the transaction because all the necessary conditions for its performance had not been met nor satisfied.
