The Legal Adviser, Shippers’ Association of Lagos State (SALS), Barr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara has said that they were making efforts to ensure that the trial date for the case between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) on one hand and between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Association of Shipping Line Agencies (ASLA) on the other hand was brought forward.
It would be recalled that STOAN and ASLA had both filed for an order for stay of execution and also filed notices of appeal against the Federal High Court judgment which dismissed their suits against the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) over the reduction of shipping line agency charges (SLAC) and ordered refund of container deposits within a specified number of days with respect to the ASLA Vs NSC case, and reduction in progressive storage charges and increase in free storage days at the port with regards to STOAN Vs NSC case.
Also recall that Justice Uzoamaka Ndukwe-Anyanwu had adjourned the matter to the 4th of February, 2016 to enable the respondents; the NSC and SALS to respond to the regularization exercise filed by the appellant; ASLA and STOAN a day before the last court sitting on the matter.
Justice Anyanwu however indicated that the respondents, should they file their briefs of argument and felt that the adjourned date given was too long in time, they reserved the right to bring an application to the court asking that the date for the hearing be moved forward.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos recently, Barr. Nwagbara observed that they were preparing to respond to the regularization exercise embarked upon by the appellants so as to save the time of the parties adding that once the Appeal Court had regularized in chamber, their (respondents) processes would go in, in answer to what the appellants had filed as appellant’s brief.
According to him,” Beyond that, we are putting up application to bring forward the date that the Court of Appeal has slated for determination of the matter. So, we are hoping that the application ordinarily should also not be opposed by the respondents so that we will fast track the hearing of the appeal because we know that shippers are suffering and the sooner the matter is determined, the better it is for the industry so that parties will know their positions in the whole exercise.
“We are doing everything that we can to fast track the hearing by trying to initiate application which we are going to file so that the hearing date will be moved forward.
Explaining the rationale behind that long adjournment, he said,” If you were in court at the last hearing on this matter, there was an abrupt service of processes on us a day before the matter came up and the service was effected on us a day before because we took some actions as lawyers for shippers.
“We file processes asking that the appeal be dismissed because it was not being diligently prosecuted and on the date that that application that we filed was to come up, they served us 24 hours before that day, all their processes seeking to regularize their position as appellants; that is seeking to do properly, what they have not done properly before that day.
“And of course, the new practice at the Court of Appeal is that such applications that are “innocuous” in the sense that we ordinarily should not in the interest of justice oppose the application for the opposition sake but to allow them file in their papers so that the appeal will be heard on its merit.
“In keeping with the practice, the Court of Appeal decided to take all applications in Chambers saving the day for other matters since the opposition of that application will not produce any result and what the court of Appeal did like I said was to hear that application in Chambers”, Nwagbara explained.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook at facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526.
