Cecilia Ihuoma Nwankwo V. Emmanuel Chukwumaobi Nwankwo (1995)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

WALI, J.S.C.

The plaintiff, Cecilia Ihuoma Nwankwo instituted an action in the Aba High Court of Imo State against the defendant, Emmanuel Chukwumaobi Nwankwo, claiming the following reliefs:-

“(i) A declaration that the plaintiff is the owner and sole proprietor of the business known as EMCECO Engineering Company registered as No. 1073 under, the Registration of Business Names Act 1961 and having its principal place of business at No. 14 Obohia Road, Aba.

(ii) An injunction restraining the defendant from further interfering with the plaintiff’s control and management, or in any other way whatsoever meddling, in the affairs of the said business.

(iii) An order directing the defendant to account to the plaintiff for all assets, property and utensils-in-trade of the said business which said assets, property and utensils-in-trade the defendant has forcibly appropriated to himself and excluded the plaintiff therefrom.

(iv) The sum of N100,000.00 being special and general damages arising from loss suffered by the plaintiff due to the defendant’s undue interference with and forcible appropriation of and undue meddling in the said business of EMCECO Engineering Company.”

Pleadings were filed and exchanged. At the end of the trial, the learned trial Judge, Chianakwalam J, granted reliefs (i), (ii) and (iii) of the plaintiff’s claim and dismissed relief (iv).

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the defendant appealed to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt. In a considered judgment delivered by Onu, J.C.A. (as he was then), the Court unanimously allowed the appeal and dismissed the plaintiff’s claim.

Aggrieved by the Court of Appeal decision, the plaintiff has now appealed to this court. Henceforth, both the plaintiff and the defendant will be referred to as the appellant and the respondent respectively.

The facts in this case can be stated thus:

The appellant and the respondent were married under customary law in 1976, but before, the commencement of this action, they were divorced. The appellant was at all time before the marriage, a business woman engaged in various types of private business enterprises, including contract works, bulk and retail supply business, farming and construction. The respondent on the other hand was at all time before the marriage and thereafter a civil servant working in the Ministry of Works of Imo State. When the going between them was good, a firm named EMCECO Engineering Company was registered under the Registration of Business Names Act, 1961 in the joint names of the appellant and the respondent in 1980.

Following the break-down of the marriage resulting in divorce, the appellant filed the present suit seeking for a declaration that she was the owner and sole proprietor of the firm known and registered as EMCECO Engineering Company.

Parties filed and exchanged briefs of argument in this appeal in compliance with the rules of this court. In the appellant’s brief, the following six issues were raised for determination:-

“(a) Whether the overt registration of a business name under the Registration of Business Names Act as “a firm of unincorporated body of two persons” raises a conclusive and irrebutable legal presumption of an intention as between the two persons concerned to operate a partnership, as postulated by the Court of Appeal.