Order 16 Supreme Court Rules

Order 16 of the Supreme Court Rules 2024 is about Brief of Argument. It contains the following rules:

Order 16 Rule 1 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Application

This Order shall apply to all appeals coming from the Court below from which an appeal lies to this Court.

Order 16 Rule 2 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Filing of appellant’s brief

(1) The Appellant shall, within forty-five (45) days of the service on him of the Record of Appeal from the Court below, file in the Court a written brief, being a succinct statement of his arguments in the appeal.

(2) The brief which may be settled by Counsel, shall contain what are. in the Appellant’s view the issues arising in the appeal. If the Appellant is abandoning any point taken in the Court below; this shall be so stated in the brief Equally, if the Appellant intends to apply in the course of the hearing for leave to introduce a new point not taken in the Court below, this shall be indicated in the brief.

(3) If leave to file and argue additional grounds of appeal is to be sought at the hearing of the appeal it may be so indicated in the brief and the proposed additional grounds shall be stated and argued in the brief under the appropriate issue(s) arising in the appeal.

Provided that any fees payable under Order 5 Ride 1 of these Rules shall be paid to the Registrar of the Court at the time of filing the brief.

Order 16 Rule 3 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Forms and contents of a brief

(1) At least eleven (11) physical copies of each brief and an electronic copy must be filed at the Court.

(2) The brief which may be settled by Counsel, shall contain an address or addresses for service.

(3) The arguments in the brief shall also be supported by particulars of the titles, dates and pages of cases reported in the I .aw Reports or elsewhere including the. summary of the decisions in such cases which the parties propose to rely upon. Where it is necessary, reference shall also be made to relevant statutory instruments, law books and other legal journals.

(4) The parties shall assume that briefs shall be read and considered in conjunction with the documents admitted in evidence as exhibits during the proceedings in the trial Court and the Court below and wherever necessary, reference shall also be made to all relevant documents or exhibits which they propose to rely upon in their arguments.

(5) All briefs shall be concluded with a numbered summary of the points raised and the reasons upon which the argument arc founded.

(6) Except to such extent as may be necessary for the development of the arguments, briefs need not set out or summarise the judgments of the Court below, nor set out statutory provisions, nor contain an account of the proceedings in the Court below nor of the facts of the case.

(7)-(a) Except where the Court directs otherwise, every brief to be filed in the Court shall not exceed forty-five (45) pages.
(b) The brief shall be legible, well-bound, prepared in 210mm by 297mm paper size (A4) and typed in clear typographic character. The font type shall be in Arial, Times New Roman or Tahoma of 14 font size with at least 1.5 spacing between.
(c) Every brief, whether in physical or electronic form, which does not comply with the page limit and page size requirements of this Order shall not be accepted by the Registry for filing. Where it is accepted it shall not be deemed as properly filed.

Order 16 Rule 4 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Filing of respondent’s briefs

(1) The Respondent shall also within thirty (30) days of the service of the brief of the Appellant on him. Hie the Respondent’s brief which shall be duly endorsed with an address or addresses for service.

(2) The Respondent’s brief shall answer all material points of substance contained in the Appellant’s brief and contain all points raised therein which the Respondent wishes to concede as well as reasons why the appeal ought to be dismissed. It shall mutalis mutandis also conform to Rule 3 (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of this Order.

(3) If a Respondent fails to file his brief, he will not be heard in oral argument except by leave of the Court.

Order 16 Rule 5 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Appellant’s reply brief

(1) The Appellant may also, if necessary, within fourteen (14) days of the service on him of die Respondent’s brief, file and serve or cause to be served on Ihe Respondent a reply brief which shall deal with all new points arising from the Respondent’s brief.

(2) Except where the Court directs otherwise, every Reply brief to be filed in Court shall not exceed fifteen (15) pages and shall conform to Rule 3 (3), (5), (6) and (7) (b) and (c) of this Order.

Order 16 Rule 6 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Vacation exempted

In giving effect to the provisions of these Rules, the period of the vacation which is declared between July and September each year shall not be taken into account for the computation period of filing briefs by cither the Appellant or the Respondent in an appeal before the Court.

Order 16 Rule 7 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Joint and several briefs

(1) All parties whose interests arc identical or joint shall file joint briefs. Separate briefs may be filed only by those parties whose interests are separate or are in conflict.

(2) Where there are more than one Appellant and they file more than one brief, it may not be necessary for the Respondent to file more than one brief in respect of his own case and time does not begin to run against him for the purpose of filing his brief until all the briefs filed by the Appellants have been served on the Respondent, unless the time within which the Appellants may file their briefs has expired.

Order 16 Rule 8 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Cross appeal

(1) A Respondent may. without leave, include argument in respect of a cross-appeal in his brief for the main appeal and the cross-appeal.

(2) Within thirty (30) days of service of the Cross-Appellant’s brief to the cross-appeal on the Appellant, the Appellant shall file a Cross Respondent’s brief

(3) The Cross Appellant may; if necessary; within fourteen (14) days of the service on him of the Cross-Respondents’ brief file and serve or cause to be served on the Cross-Respondent a reply brief which shall deal with all new points and points of preliminary- objection or any challenge to the cross-appeal raised and argued in the Cross-Respondent’s brief.

(4) All briefs under this Rule shall conform with Rules 3(2), 6(3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of this Order.

Order 16 Rule 9 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Consequence of failure to file brief

(1) Where the Appellant has failed to file a brief within the period prescribed by this Order and other period of time within which to tile the Brief, the Court may upon the Registrar’s certificate to that effect or upon the application of the Respondent, proceed to dismiss the appeal in chambers without hearing argument.

(2) Where the appellant has filed a Notice of Withdrawal of his appeal, the Court may proceed to dismiss the appeal in chambers without hearing argument notwithstanding that briefs have been filed in the appeal.

Order 16 Rule 10 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Submission of law reports

(1) As early as possible before the date set down for the hearing of the appeal and in any event, not later than one week before such date, the party who has filed a brief or the Legal Practitioner representing him shall forward to the Registrar in charge of litigation a list of the law reports, text books and other authorities which Counsel intend to cite at the hearing of the appeal.

(2) The provisions of sub-rule (1) of this Rule shall not apply to a party who has included in his brief of the list mentioned in the sub-rule, but such a party may. i: he so desires, submit a supplementary list within the prescribed time.

Order 16 Rule 11 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Oral arguments

(1) Oral argument may, at the discretion of the Court, be allowed at the hearing of the appeal to emphasize and clarify the written argument appearing in the briefs already filed in Court.

(2) When there is a cross-appeal, the appeal and such cross-appeal shall be argued together as one case and within die time allotted for one case and the Court may, having regard to the nature of the appeal, inform the parties which one is to open and close the argument.

(3) Unless otherwise directed, fifteen (15) minutes on each side may be allowed for oral argument.

(4) Save with leave of the Court, no oral argument may be heard in support of any argument not raised in the brief or on behalf of any party for whom no brief has been filed.

(5) When an appeal is called and no party or any Legal Practitioner appearing for him appears to present oral argument, but briefs have been filed by all the parties concerned in the appeal, the appeal will be treated as having been argued and may be considered as such.

(6) When an appeal is called, and it is discovered that a brief has been tiled for only one of the parties and neither of the parties concerned nor their Legal Practitioners appear to present oral argument, the appeal shall be regarded as having been argued on that brief.

Order 16 Rule 12 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Power of Court to accelerate hearing in exceptional circumstance

The Court may, where it considers the circumstances of an appeal to be exceptional, or that the hearing of an appeal must be accelerated in the interest of justice, waive compliance with the provisions of this Order in so far as they relate to the preparation and filing of brief of argument, cither wholly or in part, or reduce the time limit specified in the Order, to such extent as the Court may deem reasonable in the circumstances of the case.

Order 16 Rule 13 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Stay of computation of time and exemption of payment of default fees

Notwithstanding the provisions of Order 13 Rules 5, 7, and 8 and Order 5 Rule 1 of these Rules, the computation of time to;
(a) file any Court processes within a prescribed period;

(b) do any act provided by this Rules; or

(c) pay default fees for extension of time within which to file a process or do an act;
shall be exempted during the occurrence of any event which disrupts the normal conduct of the business of the Court.

Order 16 Rule 14 Supreme Court Rules 2024 – Filling of additional authorities

A party intending to rely on additional authorities during the hearing of an appeal may file and give notice of such additional authority to the Court and the other parties at least five (5) days before the date of hearing. Where the decision sought to be relied upon was published less than five (5) days before the date of hearing, in which case, reasonable notice of such authority shall be given to the Court and other parties.