On November 16, 2023, the case hearing in which Cruise People Limited and Ghanaian performer Mohammed Ismail Sherif, aka Black Sherif, are parties will resume.
According to Joy FM’s entertainment reporter Kwame Dadzie, when both parties appeared at the Adenta High Court earlier today, Judge Her Ladyship Mariama Sammo ordered that rather than listening to the plaintiff and defendant’s verbal arguments, their attorneys should draft the legal arguments and file them by November 2, 2023.
The defendant (Black Sheriff) had filed a motion arguing that Ghana (and, by extension, the high court in Adenta) lacked jurisdiction to decide the dispute since, in his view, the contract for his employment required that any legal proceedings be adjudicated in the United Kingdom.
Due to the fact that both parties are Ghanaians and conduct business in Ghana, Cruise People Limited also submitted an affidavit in opposition through counsel.
Frederick Osei, alias Aubrey, the road manager for Black Sherif, plaintiff Daniel Vanderpuye, CEO of Cruise People Limited, and their attorneys were present.
Background
Black Sherif was sued for allegedly breaching the contract, which resulted in the cancellation of the Afro Cruise Jam performance he was set to perform in August 2023.
In order to make up for the losses, the corporation is asking for $100,000 in damages.
The ‘Kwaku The Traveller’ hitmaker was supposed to shoot a video confirming his participation in the event in Greece, according to Cruise People Limited, after having Black Sherif booked for the cruise and receiving half of his booking fee ($20,000).
After receiving guarantees that Black Sherif would transmit the film prior to the media launch on May 19, Vandepuje stated that the corporation paid $18,000 to reserve cabins on the cruise and paid GH65,000 to Joy FM for the launch on Drive Time.
He revealed to Kwame Dadzie of Joy FM that an agreed date of August 19 and a payment of $40,000 were made after initial conversations with Blacko’s team, which was led by one Mini Aidoo.
He claimed that the singer’s crew, however, demanded a $20,000 down payment and then urged them to get in touch with Eko Talent Agency, which handles all of Black Sherif’s bookings abroad.
Mr. Vanderpuye claimed that when the booking agency issued them a contract to sign in order to confirm their plans, the initial money was wired as required.
The businessman claimed that after the deal was signed, all parties involved fulfilled their obligations, and he anticipated Black Sherif would follow suit by confirming his involvement in a 10- to 15-second film that would be used for advertisements.
He said the booking agency had given them the assurance that the tape would be made public before a media rollout on May 19.
“The deal was signed on April 28 and we anticipated receiving the footage somewhere around May 10th. As long as we were in contact with Eko Talent, they kept promising us that we would receive the footage. They even coerced Black Sherif into making a video call to me on the day of our media launch, he claimed.
According to Mr. Vanderpuye, Black Sherif informed him they had other interview commitments in the US [where he was at the time] and could only make the tape available subsequently, in the presence of his manager.
The businessman objected to the request because he had asked for the footage weeks before. He did see that the video was still not made available to them despite their acceptance of the new strategy.
The following day, I realized something was wrong, so I called our attorneys and suggested we write to them. Therefore, we gave them this letter of violation of agreement on May 22.
He stated that despite the contract violation, they were prepared to make any improvements or any suggestions.
Mr. Vanderpuye claimed that over the course of two months, he had attempted to contact Black Sherif and his team via every channel open to him, including business leaders like Gramps Morgan, Amakye Dede, and Sadiq Abdulai Abu.
