Obimiami Brick & Stone (Nig.) Ltd. V. African Continental Bank Limited (1992)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

OLATAWURA, J.S.C. 

The Appellant issued a Writ in the High Court of Anambra State of Nigeria, (now Enugu State), Enugu Judicial Division against the Respondent and claimed as follows:

“1. The defendant is a limited liability company whose registered office is situate at 148 Broad Street Lagos, and carries on commercial banking business in various places including 2 Ogui Road Enugu at which the plaintiff, a limited liability company maintains a current account and at which some of the transactions relating to the subject matter of this action, were carried out.

2. The plaintiff has suffered damages as a result of negligence of the defendant or its employees in the course of and within the scope of their employment, as follows:-

(a) In May 1986, the plaintiff obtained an import licence valid for foreign exchange to import goods worth N1,202,830.00 from Klosa and Staas, Western Germany. The defendant, for valuable consideration, undertook to establish a confirmed and irrevocable letter of credit for the import, but negligently failed to do so before the 29th of September 1986, and thus subjected the import to second-tier instead of first-tier foreign exchange market transaction which resulted in enormous loss to the plaintiff.

PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE

Fully aware, as per the exporter’s letter dated 28th August 1986, that Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt was to confirm the letters of credit, the defendant neglected to notify the said bank of the issue of the letters of credit and even when a telex message was misplaced in the defendant’s office and was not sent out until a later date when it had become stale for purposes of Decree No. 28 (sic) of 1986 (Section 15(2) (a).

(b) In November 1986, the defendant negligently excluded the plaintiff benefiting from the proceeds of BID 10 of 25th November, 1986 and so the plaintiffs money N559,290.00 paid at Enugu for which Enugu issued a draft No. DX/700594 was unutilised, whilst the bank interest on the amount kept accumulating.

PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE

Though the draft was in possession of the bank, it was misplaced in the banks office, only to be discovered after the transaction, to the plaintiff’s detriment.

(c) On 11th December 1986 the plaintiff was successful in the SFEM BID 12 but the defendant negligently failed to open the letters of credit till 24th of February 1987, thus causing unnecessary delay in the arrival of goods with consequential increase in bank interests etc.

PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE

Defendant overlooked to handle the transaction promptly as it should have been done in ordinary course of business.

(d) The plaintiff’s goods arrived Nigerian Port on the 12th of May 1987 but the defendant negligently failed to cause necessary steps to be taken for the clearance of the goods till the 24th of September 1987 when they approved clearance thus subjecting the plaintiff to payment of heavy demurrage charges, bank interest, etc.

PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE