Kabo Air Limited V. Ismail Mohammed (2014)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

HABEEB ADEWALE OLUMUYIWA ABIRU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is against the judgment of the Kano State High Court in Suit No. K/270/2010 delivered by Honorable Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu on the 30th of July 2012. The action before the lower Court was commenced by the Respondent, as plaintiff, against the Appellant, as defendant, and his claims were for:

i. The sum of N5 Million as special damages for neglecting and abandoning the Plaintiff at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during and after the Holy Pilgrimage of January, 2008.

ii. The sum of N5 Million as general damages for the incarceration, beatings, humiliation and abandonment suffered by the Plaintiff during his detention and imprisonment at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during and after the Holy Pilgrimage of January, 2008 due the Defendant’s neglect and abandonment of the Plaintiff throughout the period.

iii. The sum of N2 Million as punitive damages for the flagrant act of the Defendant in neglecting and abandoning the Plaintiff at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during and after the Holy Pilgrimage of January, 2008.

iv. 10% of the judgment sum from the date of judgment till the whole sum is liquidated.

v. The cost of filing this action.

The case of the Respondent on the pleadings was that he worked for the Appellant as a Flight Attendant and that on the 6th of January, 2008 he was part of the crew of the Appellant that departed Lagos Nigeria for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and they conveyed pilgrims from Ilorin and that the flight arrived in Jeddah at about 8am on the 7th of January, 2008.

It was his case that he thereafter checked into the Jeddah Trident Hotel which was reserved for the crew members of the Appellant and that later in the evening of the same day, he went in the company of two drivers of the Appellant, Usman and Jameel, to a shopping center to purchase some toiletries and that on the way back, the drivers dropped him at a safe walking distance of the hotel.

It was his case that while walking to the hotel, he was accosted by a man speaking in Arabic and that he told the man he did not understand the language but that the man held on to him and prevented him from going to the hotel and that in the commotion that ensued, he was arrested by the police and bundled to the Police Station and forced to sign some papers written in Arabic.

It was the case of the Respondent that after two days at the Police Station, he was allowed to make a telephone call and he called the Cabin Service Manager of the Appellant, Aminu Imam, who came to the Police Station to see him and asked him to remain calm and promised to relay the situation to the members of the Management of the Appellant present in Jeddah at the time.

It was his case that he was later questioned by four men in English and that he gave them his name, nationality and told them where he worked and showed them his identity card and they informed him that he was arrested for wearing a ladies trousers with ladies shoes and for having a lipstick in his pocket and soliciting money for sex but they assured him that he would be released once the Management of the Appellant came forward to identify him but that neither Aminu Imam nor any member of the Management of the Appellant returned to the Police Station on that day.

It was his case that he was later transferred to another Police Station where he was locked up for nineteen days without seeing anyone from the Appellant coming to look for him and that he managed to get in touch with the Nigerian Embassy in Jeddah and that an official from the Embassy, Mohammed Dawood, came to see him and, after hearing his story, assured him that all would be okay and that all that was necessary was for the Appellant to write to the Nigeria Consul and that the Embassy would do the needful with the authorities.

It was the case of the Respondent that he relayed the information to the Cabin Services Manager, Aminu Imam, and to the representative of the Appellant in Jeddah, Farouk, and that he also got in touch with the Executive Director of Operations of the Appellant, Alhaji Aminu Aliyu, the then General Manager, Operations, Captain Ibrahim Dilli and the Chief Pilot, Captain Machimu Joseph who were all in Jeddah at the time, but that they all did nothing and Mohammed Dawood informed him that there was nothing the Nigerian Embassy could do in the circumstances.