The Supreme Court of Norway has, in a unanimous preliminary determination by a panel of three, refused to grant leave to appeal to Messrs Jongsbru AS, party to a judgment of the Norway Court of Appeal previously given in favour of the Government of Ghana on 2 November 2022.
The decision by the Norway Supreme Court refusing the grant of leave to appeal, under Norwegian civil procedure, is final and not subject to review by the Supreme Court as fully constituted by a panel of five, or by any other court.
It completely brings an end to the litigation over the purchase of a property previously identified by the Republic of Ghana for use as a chancery building in Oslo.
By this latest decision of the Supreme Court of Norway, the earlier ruling by the Oslo Court of Appeal – fully acquitting Ghana of Jongsbru’s claim, in the first instance, and (second) obligating Jongsbru to pay Ghana compensation for legal costs before the district (high) court and the Court of Appeal with a total of NOK2.5 million (at today’s exchange rate approximately US$250,000) – is made final.
The Norway Supreme Court’s determination of Jongsbru’s attempt to appeal the judgment was made without the parties appearing before the court.
Ghana to get costs
In view of the summary determination of this appeal by the Supreme Court, the court further ordered Jongsbru to compensate Ghana for nominal legal costs before the Supreme Court in the sum of NOK18,750 (equal at today’s exchange rate to roughly US$1,871). This is a fixed rate applied in such summary proceedings before the Supreme Court of Norway.
Ghana’s Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, expressed utmost satisfaction with the decision of the Norway Supreme Court not to allow an appeal against the judgment by the Court of Appeal.
Dame expressed even greater delight at the conclusion of this dispute in a foreign court which had raged for the past four years, travelling the full length of the architecture of superior courts in Norway.
The Attorney General announced that all costs awarded in favour of Ghana still outstanding will be immediately paid by the losing party, in accordance with Norwegian civil procedure to mitigate expenses incurred in defending the interests of Ghana across all the courts, which involved travel by the Attorney General and witnesses from Ghana’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance for all the hearings in the other courts.
It will be recalled that after the dismissal by the Court of Appeal of the earlier appeal filed by Jongsbru, Dame had explained that, under Norwegian civil procedure rules, any civil judgment of the Court of Appeal could be appealed to the Supreme Court but the hearing of that appeal was not as of right.
A panel of three Supreme Court judges had first to determine whether to allow the appeal to be heard by the Supreme Court and explicitly allow for the appela to be heard, before the Supreme Court would proceed to hear and give judgment on it. If the panel did not allow the appeal to be heard, the appeal would terminate without any further processes at the Supreme Court.
The grounds on which the Norwegian Supreme Court will hear an appeal are where a new or major point of law is raised in the matter, and the court feels obligated to give legal clarity on the position. The Norway Supreme Court does not hear appeals on matters concerning the facts or evidence in a civil matter.
In this attempt to appeal, Jongsbru had contended that the reasoning by the Court of Appeal in its judgment was too short, vague and unclear and that it contained deficiencies which rendered a proper appeal on the merits impossible. Therefore, the company argued, the judgment had to be “repealed”.
An application for a judgment to be repealed, under Norwegian law, is similar to a request to set aside the judgment.
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