Ifesinachi Industries Nigeria Limited & Anor V. Vinee Oil Limited (2015)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

IBRAHIM MUSA MOHAMMED SAULAWA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

The present appeal is against the Judgment of the High Court of Delta State, holden at Issele-Uku, delivered on November 30, 2011 in Suit No. HCI/17/2005. By the Judgment in question, the lower court, Coram I.E. Okogwu, J; granted in part the Plaintiff’s (Respondent’s) claims against the 1st Appellant.

BACKGROUND FACTS:

The Plaintiff (Respondent) is a limited liability company trading on engine oil, fuel, gas, petroleum products and allied goods. It has the head office thereof at 126 Muyibi Street Olodi-Apapa, Lagos, and a branch office at Onitsha-Nkpor Express Way near Army Barracks, Onitsha, Anambra State.

On the other hand, the 1st Appellant (1st Defendant) is a liability company having trucks, luxurious buses, and carrying on transportation business throughout Nigeria. The 2nd Appellant (2nd Defendant) was, at all times material to the instant action, the driver of the 1st Appellant’s luxurious bus with Registration No. XE 252 GGE.

On the fateful day of September 17, 2004, while driving the said vehicle, in the course of his employment as the servant of the 1st Appellant, along the Asaba-Benin Express Road, at Iselle-Ukwu, the 2nd Appellant negligently collided with the trailer tanker with Registration No. XB 123 NEN belonging to the Respondent and thereby damaged the said vehicle and caused loss of 12800 liters of Automobile Gas valued at N704,000.00 being carried by the trailer tanker at the time of the accident. The accident also caused grievous damage to the said trailer tanker.

It was equally the case of the Respondent that after the accident, the 1st Appellant (Defendant) through its agents, made several representations and demands to the Respondent for an amicable settlement of the matter, but to no avail.

Thus, on October 12, 2005, the Respondent instituted the Suit vide a Writ of Summons against the Appellants, jointly and severally, claiming the entire cost of the loss incurred in the course of the said accident. By the Amended Statement of Claim thereof dated August 18, 2006, the Respondent claimed against the Appellants as follows:

PARTICULARS OF SPECIAL DAMAGES

(a) N704,000.00 (Seven Hundred and Four Thousand Naira) being the value of 12800 litres of the Automobile Gas (AGO) as at September, 2004.

(b) N295,500.00 (Two Hundred and Ninety Five Thousand, Five Hundred Naira) being the cost of net repairs of the trailer tanker.

26 … N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) being damages resulting from the said accident.

Contrariwise, by the Amended Statement of Defence thereof, filed on 23/11/06, the Appellants denied the Respondent’s claim in the entirety thereof, and urged the court to dismiss same with substantial costs.

Pleadings having been filed and served by the respective parties, the suit eventually proceeded to trial. At the end of which, the lower court delivered the vexed Judgment to the following conclusive effect: