An Accra High Court has ordered the Achimota Secondary School Board, the Attorney General’s Office and Fraser House housemaster Dominic Danso to pay 610,000 cedis in damages for their negligence causing the death of a 15-year-old student, Carvin Kofi Moses.
Graphic.com.gh reports that the sentence was handed down by Justice Comfort Kwashiowa Tashiame and came almost eight years after Moses’ death.
Child Rights International (CRI), which provided legal guidance and support to Moses’ parents, expressed satisfaction with the verdict.
On May 28, 2024, Justice Tashiame ruled that Achimota School was negligent in providing medical care to Moses, a General Arts boarding student, which led to his death.
“It is my conclusion that Mr Dominic Danso, the Housemaster of Fraser House, breached his duty of care towards the deceased,” Justice Tasiame was quoted as saying in his judgement by Graphic.com.gh.
According to Graphic Online, Justice Agbenorsi questioned why one of the two housemasters at Fraser House failed to accompany a seriously ill student to hospital.
“Mr. Danso’s complete lack of remorse, both when he testified on the stand and during cross-examination, has caused Sonia Ofori Anson to lose her child in a society that places such high importance on children,” Judge Tashiame said.
The court, however, did not grant the request to order the defendants, particularly the Achimota School, to commemorate the death of Moses every year.
background
According to the facts accompanying the case, Moses enrolled at Achimota Senior High School in October 2016. Moses’ mother, Sonia Ofori Anson, testified that her only son called her on November 28, 2016, complaining that he was feeling unwell.
His mother said she thought her son had malaria and sought treatment at the school clinic, where she was prescribed ibuprofen with the explanation that it was not malaria.
Ofori Anson said she called Danso to request him to send the child to hospital but was not allowed to do so, as the housemaster, she said, insisted the child was in good condition.
On December 2, 2016, Ms Ofori Anson received a call from Mr Danso asking her to meet him at Achimota Government Hospital as Moses had been taken to hospital.
“Moses was subsequently transferred to the 37 Military Hospital on the 3rd of December 2016 at the request of his mother but died the following day on the 4th of December 2016. Based on this, Mr Ofori Anson and Mr Gerald Nyarko filed a suit against the defendants.”
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants owed a duty of care to provide Moses with prompt and appropriate medical care and that the defendants breached this duty, therefore asking the court to declare that Moses died from a treatable bout of malaria.
They also sought special damages from the court in the sum of 2 million cedis to cover medical expenses, funeral expenses and loss of dependents/future income for the loss of Moses.
Other relief includes general damages for the distress, emotional and psychological trauma caused to the plaintiff by Moses’ death, as well as damages for counselling and related support to the plaintiff, and an order directing the defendants to commemorate Moses’ death annually in perpetuity.
JKB/OGB
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