Ecobank to challenge court jugement asking it to pay Honeywell N72bn

Ecobank to challenge court jugement asking it to pay Honeywell N72bn

Ecobank Nigeria Limited says it will appeal a judgement by the Federal High Court in Lagos ordering the bank to pay N72bn to Honeywell Flour as damages.

The bank said it believed that the judgment given by Justice Liman was perverse and could not stand the test of time.

It therefore said it would vigorously challenge the judgement, and was confident that it could reverse it at the higher courts.

Sources from the bank stated that the instant suit was an action filed in 2018 for the enforcement of the bank’s undertaking as to damages filed in pursuance of its Winding Up Petition and the Ex-Parte Orders which were granted in favour of the bank.

The bank said,“We challenged the action through a Notice of Preliminary Objection dated 16th October, 2018 whereby we challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, as (among other reasons), the action did not fall within the provisions of Section 251 (d) of the Constitution, being that the subject matter of the suit was for the Claim of Damages arising out of an Ex-Parte Order, as opposed to a banker-customer relationship.

“Trial was concluded in this matter since 9th March, 2021 and the parties adopted their final written addresses alongside our Notice of Preliminary objection on the 16th March, 2022, the Court then adjourned the matter to 27th May, 2022 for judgment.

“While the court failed to deliver judgment on the said date, the registrar of the court promised to inform counsel whenever the judgement was ready.”

“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in the  ank’s favour, in suit No. SC/CV/210/2021 which was delivered on 27th January 2023, the bank further filed a motion on notice dated 9th March, 2023 to dismiss the suit on the grounds that same has become academic as a result of the judgement entered in favour of Ecobank wherein the Supreme Court held that Honeywell remained indebted to the bank.

“The court heard motion dated 9th March, 2023 and adjourned to 23th June, 2023 for ruling on our two applications and also for delivery of judgment.

“The court consequently delivered the said ruling/judgment today July 18 via a virtual proceeding at about 4pm.

“In its judgment, the court dismissed the two applications we filed, holding that it has jurisdiction to entertain the suit and also that the suit had not become academic,” the bank said.

According to the bank, in reaching its judgement, the court ignored/refused (among others): Submissions showing that the ex-parte orders were discharged on points of law and not that it was frivolously obtained by the bank; that the ex-parte orders lasted for less than two weeks, contrary to the claim of Honeywell which was said to have covered the period of three years; that the documents presented by Honeywell particularly the annual returns did not show the alleged damage, hence same was indeed non-existent.”

The bank said this matter should be conclusively determined in line with the applicable judicial process.