STANDARD BANK OFFSHORE TRUST COMPANY LIMITED (SUING ON BEHALF OF CERTAIN INVESTORS IN PROMISSORY NOTES SYPHYNX CAPITAL MARKETS PCC INVESTORS & TRICON TRADE MANAGEMENT LIMITED SUBSTITUTED BY DOMINION CORPORATE TRUSTEES LIMITED vs. NATIONAL INVESTMENT BANK LIMITED ELAND INTERNATIONAL GHANA LIMITED DANIEL CHARLES GYIMAH

The applicant trustee commenced proceedings on behalf of certain investors in promissory notes issued by Eland International Ghana Ltd and guaranteed by National Investment Bank Ltd. The underlying claim concerned very substantial sums said to exceed USD 60 million. A central procedural controversy arose because the writ, as amended, did not disclose with sufficient specificity the identities and residential addresses of the foreign persons on whose behalf the trustee sued. In the review proceedings, the applicants contended that as trustees they could sue without joining or endorsing the beneficiaries’ names and addresses, relying on Order 4 rule 13 of C.I. 47 and the court’s curative powers under Order 81. The respondents maintained that the omission offended Order 2 rule 4(2) of C.I. 47 and rendered the writ void. Portion indicating this in the judgment: Dotse JSC records that the ordinary bench treated the matter as a “technical but profound legal objection to the entire proceedings on ground on non compliance with the provisions of order 2 Rule 4(2) of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2004 C.I. 47”; he also recounts the applicants’ argument that “under Order 4 r 13 of C.I. 47 ... the Applicants were entitled to sue as ‘a trustee’ without the need to join the beneficiaries of the trust or estate.”