Prince Oil Limited V. Guaranty Trust Bank PLC (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

MOHAMMED MUSTAPHA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of Hon. Justice O. A. Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, delivered on the 13th of December 2012, dismissing the plaintiff/appellant’s claim, granting the defendant/respondent’s counter claim as damages; dissatisfied the appellant appealed by a notice of appeal filed on the 18th of December, 2013 on four grounds as follows:

GROUND ONE

The learned trial Judge erred in law when he held thus:-

“I am therefore in difficulty to make a finding as the plaintiffs learned counsel had urged that her account was fraudulently debited by the defendant, when in fact by her own act of accepting the offer of the credit facility, she had agreed to the immediate payment of the fees as contained in Exhibit D1.”

GROUND TWO:

The learned trial Judge erred in law by granting N250,000.00 damages in favour of the defendant/respondent against the plaintiff/appellant herein

GROUND THREE:

The learned trial Judge erred in law by refusing to grant the N10 Million damages for fraudulent management of account in favour

of the plaintiff/appellant.

GROUND FOUR:

The judgment is against the weight of evidence.

From these grounds two issues were formulated for the appellant as follows:

1. Considering the fact and evidence adduced at trial whether the defendant/respondent breached the duty of care owed the plaintiff/appellant herein to enable the appellant entitle to refund of N1,312,500.00 deducted from its account as well as damages for fraudulent management of same (Ground 1 and 3)
2. From the totality of evidence adduced at trial, whether the appellant was in breach of contract between it and the respondent to enable the respondent entitle to the N250,000.00 granted in its favour by the trial Court (Ground 2)

Three issues were formulated for the respondent as follows: