Dr. Oladipo Kaja V. Alhaji Salawu Oke (2013)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MUSA DATTIJO MUHAMMAD, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, hereinafter referred to as the court below, allowing in part the appeal against the decision of the Lagos State High Court. The judgment being appealed against was delivered on 25th June 2002.

The facts of the case which brought about the appeal are brief and hereunder stated.

By his writ of summons and the accompanying statement of claim filed on 29th July, 1992, the appellant as plaintiff claimed the sum of N2 million naira against the respondent then being the defendant. The sum is damages for the injuries the appellant sustained on 23rd October 1990 arising from respondent’s negligence. The appellant asserts that his legs were trapped in the lift in respondent’s Hospital as he was being evacuated from the theatre after surgery to the ward on a lower floor. Appellant avers that he sustained severe fracture in his limbs as a result of the accident.

In denying appellant’s claim, the respondent avers particularly in paragraph 5 of his amended statement of defence and counter-claim

“5 The defendant denies liability for negligence because the accident of 23rd day of October 1990 was an inevitable accident or an Act of God which occurred notwithstanding the exercise of all reasonable care and skill on the part of the defendant who was unable to avoid the said accident due to circumstances beyond his control.”

Respondent’s counter-claim of N9,000.00 is bill for the medical services rendered to the appellant by the respondent.

At the end of trial the trial court in its 19th October 1999 decision found for the appellant and awarded him N2 million.

Dissatisfied with the decision, the respondent appealed to the Court below, which in allowing the appeal in part, reduced the damages awarded the appellant by the trial court from N2 million naira to N250,000.00, Appellant’s Notice of Appeal dated and filed on 2nd August 2000 contains four grounds.

In keeping with the rules of court, parties have filed and exchanged their briefs of arguments. These were adopted and relied upon as their arguments at the hearing of the appeal.

The two issues distilled from the four grounds of appeal in the appellant’s briefs as having arisen for the determination of the appeal are as follows:-

“(a) Whether the lower court was right in basing its award on only compensation for pain and suffering and

(b) If the answer to issue number 1 is in the affirmative, whether the sum of N250,000.00 awarded was appropriate in the circumstances.”

The respondent also formulated two issues in his brief. The issues are:-