Mr. Kenneth Ahia V. Starcomms Limited (2013)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

By a Writ of Summons dated 18/7/2005, and filed at the Lagos State High Court, the Appellant, a legal practitioner, claimed as follows against the Respondent –

1. Special damages for the sum of N44,000.00
2. General damages in the sum of N5,000,000.00 for loss of date and inconveniences as a result of the negligent conduct of the Defendant (Respondent herein)

Pleadings were duly filed, and at the trial itself, the Appellant testified for himself as the sole witness, and he tendered the following documents in evidence –

Exhibit C1 – A subscriber’s copy of Starcomms Billing Account (Deposit) slip of Zenith Bank PLC dated 23/6/06.

Exhibit C2 – Original Invoice of receipt issued to his law firm dated 24/5/06.

Exhibit C3 – An acknowledged copy of a letter of complaint from Ken Ahia & Associates to the Customer Service Manager of the Respondent dated 28/7/06.

The Respondent also called one witness – Uduak Usong, a data support Engineer with the Respondent, and he tendered the following 2 documents in evidence –

Exhibit D1 – A copy of the Respondent’s reply to the Appellant’s letter dated 6/7/2006

Exhibit D2 – A photocopy of the Respondent’s Register from 23/6/2006 to 27/6/2006, signed by the Appellant.

The letters they tendered contain the gist of their respective cases. Exhibit C3 is dated 28/6/2005, written by the Appellant’s law firm to the Respondent; it reads –

“On Friday [23/6/2006], our Managing Counsel called your customer service lines and made enquires about your data services for our telephone line. He was advised to bring the computer system and phone line to your office for configuration. He brought the Starcomms phone line No. 8502009 and the computer to your office as requested. We subscribed to 11:00pm to 6:00am services and paid the sum N9,000.00 representing 2 months subscription vide your receipts number 99267 of 23/6/06. The computer was taken by your technicians and purportedly configured for use of Starcomm services. Later on in the night, when our Managing Partner put on the computer, he discovered that the computer could not boot. It is important to say that this same computer has been in use for more than one year without any complaints and was used the previous day by the undersigned. It contains invaluable information and data important to our practice as lawyers. Many precedents vital to running of a law firm are contained therein including complete files for clients. The value of information contained therein cannot be quantified. Our computer engineer was called in and he informed us that the computer’s hard drive had crashed and information contained therein could not be retrieved. The undersigned came to your office this morning to complain and despite the good efforts mode by your customer services to be sympathetic, the technician who caused the problem, one Akwa Ibom man on the fat side and dark, said to be the head of the section was very uncaring and insensitive, Consequently, we have no other option than to demand for damages for the negligent collapse of our system and loss of invaluable data. We therefore demand the payment to this law firm within 7 days from the date of this letter the sum of five million Naira (N5,000,000.00) as special damages. Please note that at the expiration of the notice hereby given, we shall cause a writ of summons to be issued by the Lagos State High Court, against you, if our demands are not met”. [Signed by the Appellant for Ken Ahia & Associates]

The Respondent’s reply to the above letter is Exhibit D1, and it reads as follows –

“We write in response to your letter dated 28th June 2006 in which you complained about the crash of your operating system. Kindly be informed that Management investigated your claims and was able to establish that our technicians never configured the said system as claimed. The process of system crash is a technical issue and it was established that your system never could have crashed as result of the support we offered you. While we sympathize with you on the crash and consequent loss of your data, Starcomms wish to state that it was not responsible for the crash of your system and therefore is not liable for any damages whatsoever”.

After the adoption of Final Addresses, the learned trial Judge, Y. A. Adesanya, J., delivered his Judgment on the 19th of March 2010, wherein he found against the Appellant and concluded that he – “is not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed”.