Whether A Judgment Debtor Has The Locus Standi To Apply For A Stay Of Execution Pending The Conclusion Of Any Legal Process To Challenge The Decision Of The Garnishee Proceedings

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ELDER DR. FRIDAY SANI v. KOGI STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY & ORS

Suit no: SC.1179/2019

Legalpedia Electronic Citation: (2021) Legalpedia (SC) 11041

Areas Of Law:

Action, Appeal, Court, Garnishee Proceeding, Judgment And Order, Locus Standi, Practice And Procedure

Summary Of Fact:

The Appellant instituted a suit at the High Court of Kogi State, Lokoja, against the Respondents, wherein judgment was delivered in his favor. The 1st Respondent dissatisfied with the part of the judgment setting aside the suspension of the Appellant from the 1st Respondent (the Kogi State House of Assembly), appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

The Court of Appeal, upon hearing the appeal, delivered its judgment, allowing the appeal and remitting the case back to the Chief Judge of Kogi State for re-assignment to another Judge to be heard by way of a Writ of Summons.

Aggrieved by the judgment, the Appellant appealed to the Supreme Court vide its Notice of Appeal, which allowed the appeal in part. Consequent upon this decision of the Supreme Court, the Appellant commenced garnishee proceedings at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja against the Respondents.

The 1st Respondent filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection challenging the garnishee proceedings, stating that the judgment of the Supreme Court upon which the garnishee proceedings was predicated, did not contain any specific amount as to the Appellants pending salaries, allowances, emoluments and monies due to him, hence there was nothing in the judgment specifying that the Appellant be paid the sum of N210,820,000.00 (Two Hundred and Ten Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira only).

The trial Court in its ruling dismissed the 1st Respondent’s Preliminary Objection and proceeded to make the garnishee order nisi, absolute against the funds standing to the credit of the 7th Respondent, in the custody of the 14th Garnishee/Respondent, as per the Appellant’s reliefs.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, the 1st Respondent appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja. The 1st Respondent also filed a Motion for stay of execution of the trial Court’s ruling, pending the determination of the appeal filed at the Court of Appeal.

The 1st Respondent’s application was granted and the Court of Appeal ordered that the execution of the trial Court’s ruling be stayed, pending the determination of the 1st Respondent’s appeal. Dissatisfied with this order of stay of execution, the Appellant has once again appealed to the Supreme Court vide his Notice of Appeal containing four Grounds of Appeal.

The 1st Respondent raised a Preliminary Objection to the hearing of the appeal on the ground that the notice of appeal is against an interlocutory decision, for which leave is required, and no leave was sought and obtained.

The 2nd – 7th Respondents also filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection against the hearing of the appeal, on the ground of proliferation of the Appellant’s Issue Two.

The learned counsel for the 14th Garnishee/Respondent also filed a preliminary objection on the incompetence of ground 3 of the notice and grounds of appeal.

HELD:

Appeal Dismissed

ISSUES FOR DETERMINATION

Ø Whether the Court below was right when it granted the 1st Respondent’s application for stay of execution of the Ruling of the Trial Court pending the determination of the 1st Respondent’s appeal.
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