Master Holding (Nig) Limited & Anor V. Emeka Okefiena (2010)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

ABDU ABOKI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of L.O. Okereke J. of the Enugu State High Court Enugu, delivered on the 29th day of July, 2009.

The brief facts of the case is that the Plaintiff/Respondent supplied pieces of timber worth N1,120,010.00 to the Defendants/Appellants of which they paid only N401,500.00 leaving a balance of N719,5 10.00 they refused to pay despite several demands. The Defendants/Appellants made spirited overtures to effect out-of-court settlement but yielded no positive result.

The Plaintiff/Respondent therefore took out a Writ of Summons under the summary judgment (the undefended list) procedure. The Defendants/Appellants filed ‘A Notice of Intention’ to defend the suit’ with an affidavit setting out the grounds of their defence.

The court after going through the documents filed by the parties transferred the case to the general cause list and directed that pleadings be filed and exchanged. After exchange of pleadings, the court heard argument of counsel and adjourned for judgment.

The court delivered its judgment in favour of the Plaintiff/Respondent thus:-

‘The judgment of the court is summarized as follows:-

1. ‘The plaintiff is entitled to the sum of N719,510.00 from the defendants being the balance of the N1,120.010,00.00 the defendants give the plaintiff for the timber he supplied them.
2. The plaintiff is equally entitled to 25% interest per annum on the sum of N719,510,00 from 1st June, 2006 till toady the judgment is delivered.
3. Special damages of N165.000.00 as well as general damages of one million naira for breach of contract fare and is dismissed.

Court: ‘The plaintiff is awarded the list of N20,000.00 for this litigation. At the request of the defendants the debt is to be liquidated on or before 60 days from the day of the judgment’.

The defendant dissatisfied with the 2nd award and the costs awarded to the plaintiff appealed against the judgment to this court.

Learned counsel for the Appellant O.I.E. Onukwuli Esq. adopted and relied on the appellant’s brief filed on 15/10/09 as the appellants’ argument in this appeal.

E.N. Onyibor, learned counsel for the Respondent also adopted and relied on the brief of argument dated and filed 28/9/2010 as the Respondent argument in this appeal.

The Appellant distilled two issues for determination and they read as follows:-

1. Whether the trial court was right in granting the Respondent a pre-judgment interest of 25% in ulter disregard of the decision of the Apex Court in these suits.

(a) Ekwunife v. Wayne (W.A) Ltd. (1989) 5 NWLR Pt. 122 at 422 or (1989) 12 SCNJ 99.

(b) Himma Merchants Ltd. v. Aliyu (1994) 5 NWLR pt. 47 Page 667 or (1994) 6 SCNJ 87.