A federal high court in Lagos awarded N72.2 billion in damages to Honeywell Flour Mills (HFMP) Plc after an eight-year legal battle with Ecobank Nigeria.
The court granted all the reliefs sought by Honeywell regarding the freezing of its accounts by the bank in November 2015.
The ex parte order was granted to Ecobank to freeze Honeywell’s accounts while attempting to wind up the company due to its liabilities to the bank.
The court ruled in favor of Honeywell and granted all the reliefs sought in the case.
The judgment was delivered on Tuesday by Justice Mohammed Liman.
“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.”
