Supreme Court has reversed its earlier judgement which dismissed an appeal by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) against a N2.4billion judgement given in favour of Innoson Motors Nigeria Limited by the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State.<\/p>\n
A judgment delivered on Friday by a five-member panel, led by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola held unanimously that the Supreme Court erred when, in a ruling on February 27, 2019, it erroneously dismissed the appeal marked: SC\/694\/2014 filed by GTB.<\/p>\n
In the lead judgment, written by Justice Tijani Abubakar, but read on Friday by Justice Abdu Aboki, the court held that it was misled by its Registry, which failed to promptly bring to the notice of the panel that sat on the case on February 27, 2019 that GTB had already filed its appellant\u2019s brief of argument.<\/p>\n
The judgment was on an application by GTB seeking the re-listing of the appeal on the grounds that it was wrongly dismissed.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court noted that had the panel that sat on the case on February 27, 2019 been notified of the existence of the appellant\u2019s brief of argument, it would not had given the ruling which dismissed GTB\u2019s appeal on grounds of lack of diligent prosecution.<\/p>\n
Relying on Order 8 Rules 16 of the Supreme Court\u2019s Rules, Justice Abubakar, in the lead judgment, held that the apex court has the power to set aside its decision in certain circumstances, like any other court.<\/p>\n
He added that such circumstances include where there is any reason to do so, such as where any of the parties obtained judgment by fraud, default or deceit; where such a decision is a nullity or where it is obvious that the court was misled into giving a decision.<\/p>\n
“I am convinced that at the material time that the appellant\u2019s appeal was inadvertently dismissed by this court, there was in place, a valid and subsisting brief of argument filed by the applicant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be unjust to visit the sin of the court\u2019s Registry on an innocent, vigilant, proactive and diligent litigant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious from the material before us, that there were errors committed by the Registry of this court, having failed to bring to the notice of the panel of Justices that sat in chambers on the 27th February 2019 that the appellant had indeed filed its brief of argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a case deserving of positive consideration by this court.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving gone through all the materials in this application therefore, I am satisfied that the appellant\/applicant\u2019s brief of argument was filed before the order of this court made on the 27th of February 2019 dismissing the applicant\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe order dismissing the appeal was therefore made in error. It ought not to have been made if all materials were disclosed. The application is therefore, meritorious and hereby succeeds,\u201d Justice Abubakar said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Supreme Court has reversed its earlier judgement which dismissed an appeal by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) against a N2.4billion judgement given in favour of Innoson Motors Nigeria Limited by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n