Ila Enterprises Limited & Anor V. Umar Ali And Company (Nigeria) Limited (2013)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

ABDU ABOKI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is against the decision of the High Court of Justice, Kano, delivered on 30th day of July, 2004 by A. M. Halliru J.

The summary of the facts that gave rise to this appeal were that the plaintiff (hereinafter called the respondent) via an action initiated under the undefended list procedure claimed the sum of N11,408,431.00K (Eleven Million Four Hundred and Eight Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty One Naira) against the appellants. The said amount represented the outstanding monetary value of the cotton lint the Respondent had supplied to the Appellants by virtue of an oral agreement that was entered between the Appellants and the Respondent.

At the conclusion of the trial, the lower Court ordered the Appellants to pay the sum of N11,408,431.00K as well as a 10% interest until the final liquidation of the said sum.

Aggrieved by the said decision, the Appellants appealed to this court through a notice of appeal containing 5 grounds of appeal.

Briefs of argument were in accordance with the relevant rules of this Court duly filed and exchanged and at the hearing of this appeal, the parties duly adopted and relied on the arguments and submissions contained in their respective briefs of argument.

The Appellants in their brief of argument formulated the following issues for determination to wit:

“2.1 Whether the learned trial judge was right when he held that part payment allegedly made by the appellant/defendants will not be a sufficient triable issue to transfer the case to the general cause list because the appellant failure to supply the dates of such payments in their affidavit.

2.2 Whether the learned trial judge was right when he discountenanced the allegation of fraud raised by the appellants/defendants in their affidavit against the plaintiff/respondents.

2.3. Whether the learned trial judge was right when he ignored the appellant/defendant counter-claim against the respondents/plaintiffs.

2.4 Whether the learned trial judge was right when he entered judgment under the undefended list despite the fact that the respondents/plaintiffs have filed at the hearing, a “reply to affidavit in support of notice of intention to defend, and whether that fact alone was not sufficient to transfer the case to the general cause list.

2.5 Whether the fact that the respondent/plaintiff’s affidavit was unsworn is enough to invalidate the writ even if the “one before the Court was sworn”.

The Respondent in the other hand equally relied and adopted the issues for determination formulated by the Appellants. I adopt issue 4 with some modification as the sole issue in the consideration of this appeal to wit:

“Whether from the totality of the evidence that was adduced before the lower Court, the lower Court erred in law when it failed to transfer the matter to the General Cause List”.