Court removes FAB from sexual harassment case, slaps accuser with GHS 6,000 cost
An Accra High Court has dismissed the case against First Atlantic Bank by former National Service Person, Deborah Seyram Adablah, who alleged sexual harassment against former Chief Finance Officer, Ernest Kwasi Nimako and accused the bank of looking on unconcerned.
The Court presided over by Justice Olivia Obeng Owusu, also slapped the Plaintiff with a cost of GHc6,000 as compensation to the bank.
This was after the lawyers of First Atlantic Bank had requested for GHc50,000 and the Plaintiff had offered to pay GHc5,000.
Adablah, dragged Ernest Kwasi Nimako (First Defendant) and FAB (Second Defendant) to court alleging sexual harassment against Nimako, adding that practice was common in the bank and the directors were aware but did nothing about it.
Lawyers of the Bank however filed a motion to have the name of the Bank struck out of the case because the allegation of negligence was unfounded. The court granted the motion.
Meanwhile, lawyers of Kwasi Nimako had also filed a contempt case against Adablah for certain publications made after the court had barred the parties from doing so.
Background
Adablah, who was a national service person at FAB, and she had a consenting intimate relationship with Nimako, who is a married man and a church elder for at least two years.
She filed a writ against Nimako, alleging sexual harassment, and included the bank in the lawsuit, accusing the bank of looking on while female workers get sexually harassed by senior male officials on daily basis.
The bank however filed a motion, asking the court to strike its name out of the lawsuit contending that there is no cause of action against it on grounds of its alleged negligence.
So today’s ruling was in respect of the motion the bank filed, which was granted and cost was awarded against the plaintiff.
Meanwhile, the substantive case of sexual harassment against Kwasi Nimako would be dealt with at a later date.
