C.B.N. v. Okpanachi (2022)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report – SUPREME COURT

ABUBAKAR, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is an off-shoot of the decision of the Court of Appeal Abuja Division delivered on the 14th day of December, 2018, affirming the decision of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, wherein the National Industrial Court made an order nisi against the appellant as garnishee in the sum of N437,840,914.30.

The ex parte filed by the 1st respondent at the trial court soughtfor the following orders:

1.An order nisi attaching the various sums of moneystanding to the credit of the Judgment Debtors (theNigeria Navy, Chief of Naval Staff & Nigerian NavyBoard) or so much of it that is enough to pay thejudgment sum of N437, 840,944.30 (Four hundred andthirty seven million, eight hundred and thirty thousand,nine hundred and fourteen naira, thirty kobo) onlyin the judgment debtors’ account and all their otheraccounts with the Garnishee Bank (Central Bank ofNigeria) to the judgment creditor of the judgmentdelivered on 24th June,2013 to reinstate him into theNigerian Navy and upon disobedience of the judgmentDebtors to carry out the order of the court accordingly.

2.An order nisi attaching the various sums of moneystanding to the to the credit of the judgment debtors (theNigerian Navy, Chief of Naval Staff & Nigerian NavyBoard) or so much of it that is enough to pay the sumof N1, 431,397.42 as monthly pension to the judgmentcreditor with effect from August 2021 in satisfaction ofthe judgment delivered on the 24th June, 2013.

3.An order nisi directing the garnishee to show causewhy the amount standing to the credit of the judgmentdebtors or so much of it that is enough to pay theoutstanding judgment debt of N437,840,914.30 (four hundred and thirty seven million, eight hundredand thirty thousand, nine hundred and fourteen naira,thirty kobo) only in the judgment debtors’ accountwith the garnishee should not be paid over to thejudgment creditor in satisfaction of the judgment ofthis honourable court delivered on the 24th June, 2013.

4.An order nisi directing the garnishee to show causewhy the amount standing to the credit of the judgmentdebtors or so much of it that is enough to pay the sum of N1,431,397.42 in the judgment debtors’ accountwith the garnishee should not be paid over to thejudgment creditor with effect from August 2021 asmonthly pension in satisfaction of the judgment of thishonourable court delivered on the 24th of June, 2013.

5.An order directing the Garnishee to pay to the judgmentcreditor the cost of N30, 000.00 (Thirty, thousandnaira) only awarded on the 15th April, 2013 against thejudgment debtors.

6.And further or other orders as this honourable courtmay deem fit to make in the circumstance.

Upon hearing this application, the learned trial Judge grantedorder nisi against the appellant on the 30th day of October 2013. Itwas also on record that the appellant on the 25th November 2013filed a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the trial court to grantthe order. The appellant’s motion challenging jurisdiction washeard and dismissed, and the trial Court made the garnishee orderabsolute.

Dissatisfied with the decision of the trial court making theorder absolute, the appellant yet again appealed to the Court ofAppeal. The lower court in its judgement delivered on the 14thday of December 2018 unanimously dismissed the appeal. Theappellant became aggrieved and further appealed to this court via anotice of appeal containing seven grounds of appeal.

Learned counsel for the appellant Prince Aderemi Adekile,Esq. filed the appellant’s brief of argument on the 8th day of July2019. The said brief was deemed as properly filed and served onthe 12th day of January 2021. In the appellants brief of argument,learned counsel nominated 4 issues for determination, the issuesare reproduced as follows:

1. Whether the court below was right when it struck out the appeal upon finding that there was no inkling of denial of fair hearing and whether the said finding was not perverse and occasioned a substantial miscarriage of justice.

2. Whether the appellant’s first steps on the challenge of the jurisdiction of the court in making garnishee order nisi robs it of it right to be allowed to respond to the garnishee order nisi before same was made absolute.(Distilled from ground 1 & 2 of the grounds of appeal).