Sigma Engineering & Construction Limited V. Nigeria Airways Limited & Ors. (2013)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

ABUBAKAR DATTI YAHAYA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

On the 30th of November 2007, Justice S. J. Adah of the Federal High Court Abuja, delivered a judgment in favour of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents herein, as applicants at the trial court. This appeal arose from that judgment.

The facts in brief, are that the plot in dispute, Plot No. 390 Central Area Abuja and covered by certificate of occupancy No.FCT/ABU/MISC/3033 dated 16/8/89 was allocated to the 1st respondent herein. On the 9/7/2004, the Federal High Court issued a winding-up Order, liquidating the 1st respondent and appointed the 2nd respondent herein, as the liquidator. He then assigned the property in dispute by outright sale, to the 3rd respondent herein, for the sum of N150 million.

By a Notice of Revocation dated the 10/5/05 and said to have been served on the 1st and 2nd respondents on 31/8/05, the title of the 1st respondent in the land in dispute, was revoked by the 4th respondent herein, and it was re-allocated to the appellant herein, who sought for, and obtained the permission of the 5th respondent to develop the property. The appellant, it was said, moved into the plot in dispute and commenced development, an action considered as trespass and destruction of property by the 1st and 2nd respondents, since they contended that there was no valid revocation and re-allocation of the land in dispute, especially as the Order of liquidation by the Federal High Court was still subsisting and they had not been served with any notice of revocation. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respondents’ complaint to the 4th respondent did not yield any fruitful result for them. They therefore commenced an action at the Federal High Court, by Originating Summons dated the 13/9/06, seeking for 19 Declaratory Reliefs, the most crucial, being –

(a) An Order setting aside the purported revocation of certificate of occupancy No. FCT/ABU/MISC/3033 in the name of 1st Applicant and covering Plot No. 390 Central Area Abuja for being ab initio invalid illegal, null and void.

(b) An Order setting aside any document of title or certificate of occupancy relating to Plot No. 390 Central Area Abuja belonging to the 1st Applicant issued by the 1st and 2nd Respondents in favour of the 4th Respondent or to any person not deriving title from the 1st and 2nd Applicants.

(c) A declaration that there is a valid and subsisting sale/assignment agreement with respect to the 1st Applicant’s property in dispute, between the 2nd Applicant (acting for the 1st Applicant) and the 3rd Applicant.

(d) A declaration that the forcible entry by the 4th Respondent upon the Land in dispute on the 7/9/06 while the 1st applicant was in peaceable possession thereof, and the subsequent destruction of the 1st Applicant’s extensive improvements thereon in the circumstances of this case, are wrongful and illegal.

(e) An Order of injunction restraining the 4th Respondent forthwith from perpetrating further acts of trespass and wanton destruction of the improvements in dispute belonging to and in possession of the 1st Applicant.

(f) The sum of N30 million as special damages against the 4th Respondent for trespass and wanton destruction of the 1st Applicant’s structures on the property in question.

(g) The sum of 20 million being general damages against all the Respondents. Alternatively.

(h) A declaration that the purported revocation of the Certificate of Occupancy No. FCT/ABU/MISC/3033 in respect of Plot No. 390 Central Area Abuja, under the circumstances, is null and void for failure to comply with the procedure laid down in Section 28 of the Land use Act for a valid revocation.

The Appellant filed a Notice of preliminary objection dated the 28th of February 2007, contending amongst other grounds, that the suit was wrongly commenced by way of Originating Summons. The 4th and 5th respondents also filed a Notice of Preliminary objection dated the 16/1/07, on the ground that the action was statute-barred. The respondents to the preliminary objection filed counter-affidavits. Thereafter, the respondents to the Suit also filed counter-affidavits to the affidavits in support of the Originating Summons. The trial court overruled the Preliminary Objection and granted all the reliefs prayed for in the Originating Summons, except “reliefs 17 and 18.” He awarded general damages in favour of the respondents herein, against the appellant herein, in the sum of N5 million.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the appellant filed a Notice of Appeal and four grounds on the 18/12/07, which he subsequently amended with the leave of court on the 22/2/2010.