Mr Ipadeola Okesoto V. Total Nigeria Plc (2010)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

JOHN INYANG OKORO, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan, delivered on the 7th day of April, 2005, wherein judgment was entered for the plaintiff/Appellant in part in the sum of N272,090.00. The court however dismissed the remaining portion of the Appellant’s claims before it.

A brief facts of the case are that the Appellant who was the plaintiff at the lower court was an employee of ELF Oil Nigeria Limited which company later merged with Total Nigeria PLC. By virtue of the merger, the company was then known and called Totalfina Elf Nigeria Ltd which company was the defendant at the lower court when the suit was filed. The Appellant was so employed by the Respondent in 1990 after one year of internship. There were cases of fraud and embezzlement in some stations of the Respondent under the supervision of the Appellant. After investigation, the Respondent asked the Appellant to resign. The Appellant resignation from the Respondent’s employment on 21/6/01. The Respondent accepted the Appellant’s letter of resignation and computed the Appellant to be the sum of N1,566,282.45.

The Appellant went to the Respondent’s Office to collect his entitlement but to his surprise, a total sum of N1,294,090.96 was deducted by the Respondent leaving him with a balance of N272,090.49K. The Appellant wrote letters to the Respondent and demanded for justification of the said deductions to no avail. Based on this situation the Appellant filed his suit at the court below asking for the following reliefs as contained in paragraph 26 of his statement of claim:-

“wherefore the plaintiff claims against the defendant the sum of N1,702,696.05K being his full separation/entitlement benefits due to him from the defendant at 21st June, 2001 when he resigned from the Company together with 10% court interest per annum on the said sum of money from 21st June, 2001 until full payment of the money plus the cost of filing and prosecuting this suit”.

At the end of the trial, the lower court dismissed the Appellant’s claims and held inter-alia that the Respondent was justified in the deductions as the Appellant failed to put a defence on why the deductions should not have been made by the Respondent. The learned trial judge however awarded the sum of N272,090.49K with N3,040.00 costs to the Appellant.

Dissatisfied with aspects of the judgment, the Appellant filed Notice of Appeal dated 17/5/05 on the same date. The said notice contains eleven grounds of appeal out of which seven issues have been formulated by the Appellant for the determination of this appeal. The issues are as follows:-

(i) Whether the learned trial judge was justified in making inference that the Appellant was found wanting in the fraud committed by tendering | his letter of resignation and acceptance, of same by the respondent which led to a miscarriage of justice.

(ii) Whether the learned trial judge was justified to have found the Appellant not being honest on the issue of receiving N610,000.00 from the Station Manager which was no longer a life issue in the trial which led to a transparent miscarriage of justice.

(iii) Whether the learned trial judge was justified in law and in fact to have reached the conclusion as he did that the Appellant issued the alleged receipt thereby causing miscarriage of justice.

(iv) Whether the learned trial judge was right in finding as he did that nobody but the plaintiff could have made in lodgments evidenced by Exhibits R1, R2, and R3 because of his promise as contained on Exhibit N which caused great injustice to the Appellant.

(v) Whether having regards to the Appellant’s claims before the lower court and evidence adduced the learned trial judge was right in holding that furniture allowance and un-retired benefits were not issue between the parties as a result of which they were not considered which caused miscarriage of justice.

(vi) Whether having regards to the evidence adduced by the Appellant the learned trial judge was justified in law in finding that the Appellant as plaintiff did not prove his entitlement of N225,911.52K on the NPLC benefits which caused injustice to the Appellant.

(vii) Whether from the state of the pleadings, the evidence adduced by the parties, the learned trial judge was justified in finding that the Respondent was justified in making the deductions, Appellant having failed to put up a defence on why the deduction should not be made which led to a miscarriage of justice.