Supreme Court orders Stanbic IBTC Bank to pay N2.5bn judgement sum

The effort by Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc., to have the Supreme Court, Abuja, set aside a judgement of N2.5 billion in damages delivered against it has hit the rocks.

A five-man panel comprising Justices Musa Dattijo Muhammad, John Inyang Okoro, Amiru Sanusi, Paul Adamu Galinje and Uwani Musa Abba Aji, unanimously agreed that the bank’s application to set aside the judgment of the court lacked merit.

The apex court subsequently awarded a cost of N500, 000 against the bank.

The bank’s lawyers, Mr. O. Ayanlaja (SAN) and Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), had both approached the apex court on 18th January, 2019, asking that the Supreme Court five – man panel– former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen, Justices Musa Dattijo Muhammad, John Inyang Okoro, Amiru Sanusi and Sidi Dauda Bage, which dismissed a suit, Appeal No SC/535/2013 Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc., against Longterm Global Capital Ltd. and Mr. Patrick Akinkuotu, be set aside on the basis that it be set down for rehearing on its merits.

In its arguments, the bank alleged the judgement against it was made without a consideration of its brief of argument at the lower court on September 10, 2011 on the ground that the brief was not the exact replica of exhibit “AA1” as ordered by the lower court on September 14, 2011.

“The decision of the court that the applicant did not seek leave of the lower court to file another brief of argument different from exhibit AA1 was based on the oversight by this court of the order of the court below dated October 8, 2012 contained at pages 1675 – 1676 of the records of appeal.

“This court reached its decision based on its conclusion that the applicant did not seek leave of the court below to file the additional grounds 4 and 5 of the appellant’s amended notice of appeal.

“The decision of the court that the applicant did not seek leave of the court below to file additional grounds 4 and 5 was reached in oversight of the order of the court below granted on July 5, 2011”, the bank argued.

But, the respondents through their lawyer, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN), filed their written address on April 23, 2019.

Certain issues were raised for court’s determination. These includes; whether the applicant has established that there are special or exceptional circumstances warranting the setting aside of the judgment delivered by this court on January 18, 2019 in Appeal No SC/535/2013.

“By Order 2 Rule 29 (1) of the Supreme Court Rules, the applicant’s application is incompetent and an abuse of court’s process”, the respondents argued.

However, delivering the lead judgement, Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji, said: “I cannot but fully agree with the submission of the learned counsel to the respondents that this application is frivolous, baseless, scandalous and contemptuous to be dismissed.

“There is a synergy of concurrence in reasonings and decisions from the trial court upward that this case was decided on its merits and smacks of any oversight or miscarriage of justice, thus cannot be reviewed and therefore does not fall within the genre and the circumstances of judgments to be set aside.

“In a proceeding which is ‘ab initio’ a nullity, nothing can be set aside out of it as there is nothing legally binding in it. One cannot build something on nothing and expect it to stand; it will certainly collapse.”