Headnote
The respondents had been detained under orders of the President made under the Preservation of Public Security Regulations. The appellent had failed to supply grounds of the detentions within the period of fourteen days, as required by the then s. 26A (1) (a) of the Constitution and the detentions had thus become unlawful. The appellant had not contested the issue of unlawfulness and judgment had been entered in default. Each of the plaintiffs had been awarded a sum of K20,000 as 40 general damages.
Held:
(i) Exemplary damages may be awarded where the defendant has acted in contumelious disregard of the plaintiff's rights. The court should consider first what sum to award as compensation, taking into account the whole of any aggravating conduct of the 5defendant, and only if this sum is inadequate to punish and deter the defendant should award some larger sum. Lord Devlin's "if, but only if" dictum in Rookes v Barnard [2], adopted in Times Newspapers v Kapwepwe [3], reaffirmed.
(ii) The fact that a person could have been lawfully detained, and would have been so detained if a technical requirement had not been overlooked, may be relevant in considering questions of exemplary damages or aggravation but does not affect the basic loss he has suffered flowing from the deprivation of his liberty so as to entitle him only to nominal damages.
(iii) A period of detention must be regarded as a single period and not a succession of days or weeks or months; one cannot arrive at a compensatory award by deciding what would be an appropriate award for some shorter period such as a day or a week or a month and multiplying it.
(iv) In considering what is a proper award of general damages the plaintiff's social, economic and political standing must be taken into account.
(v) (per Gardner, JS and Baron, DCJ, Doyle, CJ, expressing reservation) A person who is wrongfully imprisoned under conditions whereby he is allowed to receive visitors is entitled to recover the reasonable expenses incurred in visits made to him by his wife and family, and also by his business manager.
