High Court slaps cost on SML, throws out case against The Fourth Estate

An Accra High Court has thrown out the Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) case against The Fourth Estate in which it claims the news portal had published “defamatory and reckless” reports about its contracts with the Ghana Revenue Authority.

The court, presided over by Justice John Eugene Nyante Nyadu, also awarded cost of GHS1,000 for SML’s failure to do due diligence on the legal status of The Fourth Estate before going to court and citing the investigative journalism project as a First Defendant in the case.

The company took legal action against The Fourth Estate and its former Editor-In-Chief, Manasseh Azure Awuni, in February 2024, following the release of an investigative report which exposed how SML, an offshoot of a timber company, had made false claims about potential revenue losses it had helped the state to avoid.

The investigative report also raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the signing of the contract and its rationale as the services SML was contracted to provide were already being performed by other state agencies.

On March 12, 2024, lawyers for the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), led by Samson Lardy Anyenini, filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the SML case against The Fourth Estate as First Defendant since The Fourth Estate is simply an investigative journalism project of the MFWA and not a legal entity.

“That the applicant [The Fourth Estate] is neither a natural nor artificial legal person [company] capable of suing and being sued, being a project under the MFWA’s Media and Good Governance Programme,” lawyers for the MFWA argued.

The Fourth Estate is a non-profit, public interest journalism project of the MFWA and not a company.

However, lawyers for SML thought otherwise. So, on March 26, 2024, when lawyers for MFWA appeared in court to argue against the application, SML’s lawyers had other ideas.

They told the court that they had filed a search at the Office of Registrar of Companies ostensibly to prove that The Fourth Estate was an entity capable of being sued.

They, therefore, requested for time to produce the search results to allow them to take the necessary actions including filing their affidavit in opposition which would give reasons as to why The Fourth Estate’s motion should not be granted but be dismissed.

Although lawyers for SML subsequently filed its affidavit in opposition, the defendants were never served.

That notwithstanding, on Tuesday, lawyers for SML had to withdraw their affidavit in opposition to the motion.

Lawyers for MFWA argued their motion and the court upheld it and set aside the suit, indicating that SML could not sue The Fourth Estate.

Meanwhile, the court has granted an application by SML to join MFWA to the suit in place of The Fourth Estate.

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