Chief S. N. Muomah V. Spring Bank Plc. (2008)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

ADAMU JAURO, J.C.A.

This is an appeal against the ruling of the High Court of Justice Lagos State, sitting in the Lagos Judicial Division in Suit No. LD/1344/04 delivered on the 17th day of February 2005, by Hon. Justice A. A. Phillips.

The claim of the appellant as plaintiff, against the respondent in the court below, is as contained in paragraph 24 of the Statement of Claim, as follows:-

“(a). The sum of N1,625,000.00 (One Million Six Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Naira) being the value of the Bank cheques purchased by the plaintiff from the defendants, which cheque was never cashed but instead, placed in an escrow account and N30,527.65 (Thirty Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty Seven Naira, Sixty Five kobo) being the credit balance in the plaintiffs account No.202411 with the defendants Bank as at 31st December, 1997.

(b). Interest on the said sums of N1,625,000.00 and N30,527 65 at the rate of 25% per annum from 20th June, 1994 until the plaintiffs account is fully re-credited”.

Pleadings were filed and exchanged, thereafter the respondent filed a motion dated 12th August, 2004 seeking for the dismissal of the suit on the ground that it was statute barred. Affidavits were exchanged, arguments of counsel taken via written addresses and in its ruling, the court dismissed the suit having found it to be statute barred.

The facts of this case giving rise to this appeal, are simply put and briefly stated as follows. The appellant who was the plaintiff in the court below, alleged that he was a customer of the respondent, African Continental Bank Plc now Spring Bank Plc (substitution made pursuant to an order of this court dated 14th May, 2007), at their Festac town branch, with account number 202411. That on or about the 20th June, 1994 the appellant purchased a bank cheque in the sum of N1,625,000.00 through the said account from the respondent’s Festac branch in favour of one Festus E, Abasili. The appellant alleged that he lost the said bank cheque and immediately reported same to the respondent’s Festac town branch manager, who insisted that the appellant should wait for the mandatory six months period for the cheque to go stale before re-crediting his account with the value of the lost cheque and that he would block the cheque. The appellant further alleged that he wrote the respondent on 22nd December, 1997 to re-credit his account, which it failed to do. Several letters were later exchanged between the appellant and the respondent before 17th June, 2004 when the appellant filed in this suit at the Lagos State High Court. The suit as earlier stated was dismissed for being statute barred.

Aggrieved and distressed by the ruling dismissing the suit, the appellant lodged in this appeal against it on the 17th day of March, 2005 vide his notice of appeal of the same date containing six grounds of appeal. The appeal was duly entered pursuant to an order of this court for departure granted on the 14th day of May, 2007. The six grounds of appeal are to be found on pages 89 to 91 of the bundle of documents forming the records of this appeal. The said grounds of appeal shorn of their particulars are hereby reproduced thus:

“(i). The learned trial judge erred in law in dismissing the action on the ground that the claimant/appellant should have brought this action on or before 31st day of December, 1994 being the date the Bank cheque went stale, without determining when the cause of action accrued.

(ii). The learned trial judge erred in law in dismissing the suit on the ground that it is statute barred not minding the clear acknowledgment by the defendants in their letter of 21st January, 2004 Exhibit F” to the claimants counter affidavit deposed to on 30th September, 2004 that the Bank cheque in question had not been paid.

(iii). The learned trial judge misdirected himself in dismissing the suit by only considering the first claim of the claimant which relates to the lost cheque of N1,625,000 and failed to consider the second claim of the claimant

(iv). The learned trial judge misdirected himself on the facts and special circumstances of this case in the following passage of his judgment to wit:

“I find that I cannot agree with the argument of learned counsel for the claimant that the date the cheque got lost is immaterial for the simple reason that if, as at the time the said report, the manager of his branch of the Defendant’s bank told him that he would have to wait for 6 months for the draft to go stale before she could take any action on his report of the loss of the cheque it can reasonably be presumed on the basis of these facts that the claimant would have known at the expiration of that period whether or not the cheque had been cashed as a prudent man of business.

All the facts deposed to in the Counter Affidavit to this application go to no issue as I find them to be mere afterthoughts.”