A.J. Adeka & Anor. V. M.A. Vaatia (1986)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

AGBAJE, J.C.A.

When this appeal came on for hearing on Monday, 30th June, 1986, a letter from one, Gordon Esa, Esq., who described himself in it as an attorney-at-law, was brought to the notice of the Court. In the letter, Mr. Esa who described himself, again as solicitor for the respondent asked for an adjournment of the case on the grounds that he was bereaved in that he had just lost an uncle of his who had since been buried. We discovered that the brief of arguments of the respondent on whose behalf Mr. Gordon Esa wrote for an adjournment, was settled by a firm of solicitors who described themselves as Gordon Esa and Co. Solicitor, of 5, Otukpo Road, Makurdi. We refused to accede to Mr. Esa’s application for an adjournment for the reasons given in our ruling written in court on the day. The reasons briefly stated are that if any member of a firm of solicitors acting for the litigant is unable, for one reason or another to appear, in court, any other member of the firm should be able to stand in for him. Again we were of the view that since the respondent, in any case, has filed his brief of arguments in answer to the appellants’ brief of arguments, it cannot be said that in the consideration of the appeal now before us, we will only have the version of the appellants to go by. So, on 30th June, 1986, we had only oral arguments from the appellants’ counsel in addition to the arguments in the appellants’ brief before us. It is worthy of note that the oral arguments from counsel for the appellants were along the lines indicated in the appellants’ grounds of appeal and their brief of arguments.

The background to this appeal is as follows:

The plaintiff, M.A. VAATIA, a building engineer and a civil engineering contractor sued the defendants, A.J. ADEKA and A.J. ADEKA (NIG.) LTD. in a Benue State High Court. The first defendant is the Chairman and Managing Director of the second defendant company. It is the plaintiffs claim as pleaded in paragraph 4 of his statement of claim that on 29th June, 1983, the defendants entered into a contract with him for him to build two four bedroom flats and four three bedroom flats at the permanent site of the Federal University of Technology, North Bank Road, Makurdi, the aggregate contract price of all the buildings being N287,940.00. It was also the case of the plaintiff that the contract was awarded by the defendants to him by a letter from the defendants to him dated 29th June, 1983 reference No. AJA/MH/SUB.1.83 headed “CONFIRMATION OF SUB-CONTRACT AWARD: 2NO. 4-BEDROOM AND NO. 3- BEDROOM”. The letter is Exhibit ‘1’ in this case and it reads as follows:-

“CONFIRMATION OF SUB-CONTRACT

AWARD: 2 NO. 4 BEDROOM AND 4 NO. 3 BEDROOM:

I would like to confirm that I have awarded the above contract to you at the cost of N248,940.00. You will hand over the buildings fully completed on or before 12th October, 1983 which is the date for completion stipulated in the contract agreement I signed.

The penalty for failing to handover the buildings fully completed on or before the 12th October, 1983 is N1000.00 per week.

This date line should he noted with every seriousness as I always adhere strictly to contract terms.

I would like to state that I am very pleased with the progress you have so far made at the site. If you do not slow down the tempo. I could see you finishing before October, ending.

Yours sincerely,

(SGD.) A.J. ADEKA

Chairman/Managing Director”

Paragraph 4 of the plaintiff’s statement of claim referred to above is admitted by paragraph two (2) of the defendants’ amended statement of defence. It is clear from the last paragraph of Exhibit ‘1’ which says:-