Alhaji Danjinjin Uman & Anor V. Mrs. C. T. Owoeye (2002)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

ADEKEYE, J.C.A. 

T

his is an appeal against the judgment of the Oyo State High Court of Justice, Ibadan Judicial Division – delivered on the 30th day of April, 1998.

Mrs. C. T. Owoeye the plaintiff before the trial court, now respondent filed an action in the High Court Ibadan Judicial Division – where she claimed reliefs as follows:-

1. One million Naira (N1,000,000) being special and general damages suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the negligence in driving of the 2nd defendant on the 15th of February, 1994 along Ibadan – Lagos Expressway, Ibadan – when in charge of the 1st defendant’s trailer vehicle registered as PL 6136 JF.
2. The plaintiff also claims N200.00 daily from the filing of this case until judgment is delivered for loss of use.

Parties filed and exchanged pleadings. Case proceeded to trial on the evidence of the plaintiff alone as the defendants and their counsel failed to appear in court despite service of hearing notice on them by court.

The crux of the case of the respondent was that on the 15th of February, 1994 she travelled in her Mercedes Benz 250 saloon car registered as OG 228 LE, when a trailer registered as PL 6136 JF driven by the 2nd defendant now 2nd appellant before this court hit her from the rear at an area known as Adesola. As a result of the collision she went into a state of shock,  and was later treated in a hospital for the bruises and injury she sustained. The 2nd appellant was charged and found guilty at a Magistrate Court on a two count charge of dangerous driving and lack of Insurance coverage for the trailer involved in the accident. There was no representation by the defendants/appellants at the trial court. The trial court granted all the reliefs sought by the respondent based on her evidence and that of her witness as follows:-

1. (a) Value of car…N320,000.00, (b) Cost of medical expenses ..25,000.00 for shock and physical injuries

(c) Cost of transportation daily from 15th February, 1994 – 31st March, 1994 at N200 per day.. 9,000.00

2. General damages…646,000.00 Vide pages 39 – 45 of the record of appeal.

The respondent made an effort to execute the judgment, when the appellants filed their application, praying the court for setting aside of the judgment of the trial court, on the ground of improper service of the hearing notice on them. The lower court dismissed this application. Being aggrieved by the decision of the lower court, the appellant filed their notice and grounds of appeal. There were three grounds of appeal. Parties settled records and exchanged briefs in accordance with the rules of this court. The appellants compressed the three grounds of appeal into two issues for determination as follows:-

(a) Whether the award of damages made by the learned trial Judge is justified in law considering the well settled principles guiding the award of special and general damages.

(b) Whether the learned trial Judge considered the duty imposed upon a claimant to mitigate his loss in a claim for loss of use in award of damages and whether the plaintiff was entitled to damages for loss of use in the circumstance.

The respondent distilled only one single issue for determination which reads:-

Whether the learned trial Judge was not right in making the award of damages against the appellants based on the applicable principles of law guiding award of damages.

Item (a) of the appellants two issues for determination is similar and on all fours with the single issue for determination from the respondent. The argument put forward by the appellants in resolving the issue in their first leg will obviously cover their second leg.

Undoubtedly the second leg is submerged in the first leg. In the circumstances this court interprets the issue for determination in this appeal as:-