A federal high court sitting in Lagos has awarded damages of N72.2 billion to Honeywell Flour Mills (HFMP) Plc in its eight-year legal battles with Ecobank Nigeria.

In a judgment delivered on Tuesday by Justice Mohammed Liman, the court granted all the reliefs sought by Honeywell over the freezing of its accounts by the bank in November 2015.

Ecobank had been granted an ex parte order to freeze Honeywell’s accounts in an attempt to wind up the company over its liabilities to the bank.

The ex parte order was granted with the condition that Ecobank would indemnify Honeywell’s over any losses.

The order was varied by the court of appeal in December 2015, but a dissatisfied Ecobank headed for the supreme court where it also lost.

Honeywell then approached the high court to claim N72.2 billion in damages against Ecobank for the losses it suffered while the freezing order was applied to its accounts.

The claims made by HFMP include losses due to foreign exchange devaluation, interest on unutilised cash balances, loss of revenue, and aggravated and exemplary damages

In his judgment, Liman granted all reliefs sought by Honeywell.

“The plaintiff was denied the use of funds in his account based on the ex parte order granted in favour of the defendant. It is therefore my firm view that the plaintiff (Honeywell) is entitled to the amount claimed… The argument of the defendant in his written address is therefore not acceptable as the contents of the document are the best evidence and they speak for themselves,” he said.

He frowned upon Ecobanks’s lawyer’s approach, stating that “the purpose of an undertaking to pay damages has been held in a legion of cases to indemnify the party for the losses he may suffer on the bases of an ex parte order. Note that Rule 4 of the Winding Up Rules provides that all applications which affect the rights of parties in a winding-up proceeding must be made on notice.

“The provisions of the winding up rules are very clear and unambiguous. The defendant cannot claim ignorance of this provision as ignorance of the law is no excuse and it is even more inexcusable if it is committed by a lawyer. The ex parte application was therefore made ultra vires.”

Good for them

Gbese

Watch ecobank use network problem as a new reason to come out of dis pain.

Underrate oba otudeko at your own peril

Omihanifa:
Underrate oba otudeko at your own peril

Did you hear that it started 2015?
So will people rush to make unrelated/baseless conclusions?

Beware of Stupid greedy lawyers.

Many are in prison because one silly lawyer urged them to go to court and stand for their rights .

These lawyers are only interested in their fees.

A case in mind is that of a friend who was having issues with his landlord. I told him to pack out and leave the house for the owner but him no gree . Landlord served him quit notice and he went to get the first idiot lawyer he found in front of a court. The lawyer now was urging him that he had a case and they went to court.

The case dragged for over a year and he was paying the useless lawyer court fees and all instead of finding a house to go rent and move on with his life. At the end, the same lawyer compromised the case in his back after getting bribed by the landlord.

The final judgement led to his property being siezed and auctioned to pay the backlog on the owed rent. Dem auction his car for less than 50k.

Moral of the story ,do not think lawyers have your best interests at heart. Nah their fees and fees only dem dey find.

DomPerignon:
Beware of Stupid greedy lawyers.

Many are in prison because one silly lawyer urged them to go to court and stand for their rights .

These lawyers are only interested in their fees.

A case in mind is that of a friend who was having issues with his landlord. I told him to pack out and leave the house for the owner but him no gree . Landlord served him quit notice and he went to get the first idiot lawyer he found in front of a court. The lawyer now was urging him that he had a case and they went to court.

The case dragged for over a year and he was paying the useless lawyer court fees and all instead of finding a house to go rent and move on with his life. At the end, the same lawyer compromised the case in his back after getting bribed by the landlord.

The final judgement led to his property being siezed and auctioned to pay the backlog on the owed rent. Dem auction his car for less than 50k.

Moral of the story ,do not think lawyers have your best interests at heart. Nah their fees and fees only dem dey find.

As directed by ugezu ugezu

This Justice Liman's name has always cropped up amid recent controversial judgments and needs to be investigated and brought down.

He is to me, a judicial terrorist and an enemy of the state who needs to be check-mated.

Waiting to hear more about this issue.

donbachi:
Watch ecobank use network problem as a new reason to come out of dis pain.

Their epileptic network has started for some time now.

1, 2 months ago, when I frequent any of their branches, it's one complain or the other about network.

A whole "Pan African Bank" 🤣🤣