Muhammed Aminu Ademola & Ors V. Seven-up Bottling Company Plc (2003)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

MAHMUD MOHAMMED, J.C.A.

This appeal is against the decision of Makeri, J. of the Kaduna State High Court of Justice sitting at Kaduna and delivered on 8/6/2001.

In an action instituted by a writ of summons, the appellants as plaintiffs before the trial court in paragraph 32 of their amended statement of claim dated 2/12/97 claimed against the respondent which was the defendant in the action as follows:

“32. WHEREOF the plaintiffs claim various against the defendant followings:

(a) A declaration that the plaintiffs are the winner of winning No. 228 as published by the New Nigerian Newspapers Ltd. Northern edition of No. 8,986 of Friday June 4th, 1993 at (last) page 16.

(b) A declaration that the plaintiffs no. 228 as published by the New Nigerian Newspaper Ltd. on it’s newspaper on Friday June, 4th 1993 at page sixteen is the winning number.

(c) A declaration that the first, second, third, forth and fifth plaintiffs having found No. 228 under the crown corks of the product of the defendant are the winner of the amount there under in the sum N225,000.00, N75,000.00, N200,000.00, N25,000.00, N200,000.000 (Seven Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Naira.

(d) An order that the defendant should pay the sum of N725,000.00 (seven hundred and twenty five thousand naira) jointly and severally to the plaintiffs as variously appear under their respective crowns/corks.

(e) A declaration that the plaintiffs are entitled to claims of various amount of money as it appears under the crown/corks of the product of the defendant with No.228 being the winning number as published by the New Nigerian Newspapers Ltd. on the 4th June 1993.

(f) A general damage of N20,000.00 (twenty thousand naira) for breach and repudiation of the said contract and loss of benefit of using the sum of N725,000.00 (seven hundred and twenty five thousand naira).”

After the exchange of pleadings which suffered a number of amendments between the parties before final settlement, the case was heard by the trial court. In the course of the hearing, all the 5 appellants as plaintiffs testified in support of their respective claims and also called two other witnesses. A number of documents were also tendered and received in evidence in support of the plaintiffs’ case. The respondent, as the defendant on its part called only two witnesses and tendered one document which was received in evidence as exhibit 7 in its own defence to the action. In its judgment delivered on 8/6/2001, the trial court after formulating an issue which states:

“The issue for determination to my mind from the whole evidence is whether plaintiffs have proved by credible evidence that the winning number in their possession and as advertised in the New Nigerian Newspaper is the actual number declared by the defendant to be the winning number.”

proceeded and resolved the issue against the plaintiffs, now appellants by holding that the reliefs claimed had not been proved by evidence as required by law and therefore dismissed the action. The learned trial Judge reasoned that the appellants having on their own evidence failed to prove that the number 228 in their possession was the winning number declared and published on 4/6/93, the claims of the appellants must fail in their entirety as questions relating to contract with the respondent, agency between respondent and the New Nigerian or whether the New Nigerian Newspaper produced and tendered in evidence was from proper custody no longer arise for determination in the case.

Dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, the 5 plaintiffs who are now the appellants have appealed against it by the notice and grounds of appeal dated 15/6/2001. In all, there are 7 grounds of appeal in the notice of appeal from which the learned counsel to the appellants distilled 6 issues for determination as follow: