…Adjourns to 23rd of May, 2016
Disturbed by the failure of the Counsel to the appellant, in this case, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Mr. Ayo Olorunfemi to comply with the requirements of the court in having their appeal ready to be heard today, Justice Uzoamaka Anyanwu of the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos has awarded a thirty thousand naira (N30, 000. 00) cost against the appellant.
Justice Anyanwu who was visibly angry at Mr. Olorunfemi’s defense that the 1st and 2nd respondents, in this case, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Shippers’ Association Lagos State respectively through their Counsels filed in their notice of non contention very late having done that in October last year, shunned all efforts made by the appellant’s Counsel to make further comment before the court.
She contended that having filed in their papers in October 2015; the respondents had no blame at all adding that the onus lied on the appellant to have gone to the registry to ensure that his application was taken in chambers before the hearing date.
Not satisfied with his defense, Justice Anyanwu adjourned the matter to the 23rd day of May, 2016 and awarded the cost of thirty thousand naira (N30, 000. 00) against the appellant contrary to the two million naira (N2, 000, 000. 00) punitive cost demanded from the court by the Counsel to the 2nd respondent, Chief Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara.
Reacting to the ruling, Counsel to the appellant, Mr. Ayo Olorunfemi argued that it was not his job to inform the Judge that the appellant has filed his application to regularize his processes in court adding that it was the job of the registry to do so.
According to him,” It is a 2015 Appeal; we have filed an application for extension of time to deal with our appellant’s brief as having been filed properly. That is allowed under the rules. However, the respondents since they didn’t want to oppose the application, they are required to file a notice of non contention but they didn’t file it in good time until around October.
“So, the court ruled that the appellants should have reminded the court to do its work in a way but we feel it is the duty of the registry once they have received the notice to inform the Judge and not the appellant in this case”.
He however expressed satisfaction with the adjourned date hoping that by that date, the registry should have been able to take the file to the assigned Judge to consider the application, then they could regularize all processes.
On his part, Counsel to the 1st respondent, Mr. Emeka Akabogu stated that the appellant was meant to have filed all his briefs and motions for regularization adding that if they had been regularized before today, the court would have been in position to hear the matter.
“So, what has happened is simply that the appellants have not done what the court instructed them to do almost a year ago and because of that we are faced with further adjournment. The court has ruled, you have no other choice than to obey the court directive”, he said.
Speaking on the cost awarded against the appellant, Akabogu said,” That is just regular court procedure of awarding cost to a party who has caused delay such as this. The most important thing as far as the respondents are concerned is that the respondents and the Nigerian Shippers are very keen to ensure that this matter is attended to and that is why we are concerned, that is why we have asked the court and the court have agreed that this matter be dealt with expeditiously”.
Also speaking, Counsel to the 2nd respondent, Chief Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara described the development as a deliberate effort on the part of the appellant to slow down the adjudication process pointing out that it was not in the interest of the parties to slow down proceedings of the court on the matter.
Nwagbara recalled that he went out of his way to put a call across to the appellant’s Counsel all in a bid to get him to go to the court registry to regularize his processes so as to ensure that the matter was heard in court today which he failed to do thereby stalling the court process.
He said,”, What happened was that the counsel for the appellant filed an application to regularize their processes in the court and that is to say, to deemed properly done what they did not do when they supposed to have done it and as respondents, we also filed a paper telling the court that we were not opposing that application and we expect that they would have done their house keeping by going to the registry to ensure that that application was taken in chambers before this day. Infact I went out of my way two weeks ago to call them to remind them that the enquiries I made at the registry showed that their application has not been granted and that they should take step to go and ensure that their application was taken.
“Unfortunately, they did not do anything in respect of that. Again, it is a deliberate slow down of the process of adjudication on this matter and again it is not in the interest of the parties, we believe that this is a contentious issue in the port operation in Nigeria and it need to be decided once and for all. A very important issue is at stake here, whether the shipping line agency charges is illegal or not, it is key to the issues of operation in the maritime industry in Nigeria today”.
On the thirty thousand naira cost awarded to the respondents, he said,” I asked for N2, 000, 000 and N30, 000 was granted, such decisions are based on the discretion of the court, I will not question it. I think I am satisfied. The essence is to make them appreciate that they have to move fast. It is not going for a kill or to do any harm, it is to show that the court is not happy with the slow down that they have imposed on the court. So, we look forward to it, we believe that by the next adjourned date, definitely, we will have our day in court”.
Meanwhile, the court has also adjourned the matter between the Association of Shipping Line Agencies (ASLA), the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Shippers’ Association Lagos State to the 23rd day of May, 2016.
When the matter came up for hearing in court today, the counsel to the appellant, Mr. Chidi Ilogu (SAN) told the court that he filed an application in which he sought to include one missing page as part of the records of appeal, a situation which prompted the court to adjourn the matter as it could not assume jurisdiction where one of the parties claimed that the record was not complete.
The matter which was originally adjourned to the 4th day of April, 2016 was later rescheduled to come up on the 23rd of May, 2016 for definite hearing.
It will be recalled that STOAN and ASLA had gone to court to challenge the authority of the NSC to abolish Shipping Line Agency charge (SLAC), reduce the container storage charge and increasing the free storage period from 3 to 7 days.
Delivering judgment on the matter in March 2015, Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi Lagos ruled in favour of the Council and the Shippers’ Association of Lagos State and directed that ASLA and STOAN should refund N1trillion as monies illegally charged Nigerian importers.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the two bodies appealed the against Justice Buba’s Judgement and the case which first came in June last year was adjourned to today for hearing.
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