Patience Sonko Godwin, a historian and
writer, has won a legal suit against Lawrence Jah, Micheal Goba and Mac
Collier.
This was contained in a judgment delivered
by Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara of the Banjul High Court.
The plaintiff, Patience Sonko Godwin, was
claiming for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants either by themselves,
their servant, agent, privies however from printing, publishing, circulating,
distributing, and selling the pamphlets/books such as the history of The Gambia
made simple, mastering Gambia history with ease, topic in Gambia history with
model questions and answers.
The plaintiff was also claiming for an
order impounding all the copies of the said pamphlets/ books; entitled; history
of The Gambia made simple, mastering Gambia history with ease, topic in Gambia
history with model questions and answers, as well as damages among others.
Delivering the judgment, the judge said she
would look at the statement of claim and the affidavit of witness statements
and documents filed to see whether the applicant has proved her case on the
balance of probabilities.
She said it should be noted that the
defendants were not denied fair hearing, because they were served with the
originating processes and were given the opportunity to defend the suit, but
they failed to do so within the time stipulated by the rules.
The defendants had 30 days from the date of
service to file their defence, but they failed to do so.
Therefore, she added, the defendants could
not turn round and now say that they were denied a fair hearing when, in fact,
they failed to utilize the opportunity given to them by the rules to put up
their defences.
In summary, she awarded D50,000 nominal
damages against the 1st and 2nd defendants each in favour of the plaintiff,
and also costs of D40,000 was awarded to the plaintiff against the defendants.